Two Policemen Killed While Protecting Polio Team in Mohmand Attack

Two police personnel were killed and a third was injured after unidentified gunmen opened fire on officers travelling to provide security for a polio vaccination team in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Mohmand district on Tuesday. The attack occurred near the Hashim Kor police checkpost in the Dag Tamanzai area of Pindiali tehsil.

Police said the officers were on their way to join the security detail for the ongoing immunisation campaign when they were targeted. Headquarters Deputy Superintendent of Police Liaquat Ali identified the slain officers as Constables Zahoor Khan and Arbai Khan, while Sepoy Sabir Khan was injured in the attack.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the shooting. The incident comes during a major vaccination drive targeting nearly 24 million children in 97 high-risk districts, making the protection of health teams and their escorts a central operational concern.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attack and paid tribute to the officers who were assigned to protect vaccination workers. He said violence against personnel deployed for the campaign would not be tolerated and called for action against those responsible.

In a separate development, four polio workers were abducted in Tank district. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi directed authorities to take immediate measures for their safe recovery, describing the targeting of polio workers as a grave matter.

Vaccination campaigns in Pakistan have repeatedly faced security threats, especially in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Such attacks can interrupt access to children in areas where immunisation teams need police protection to conduct door-to-door work safely.

Pakistan reported its eighth polio case of 2026 on Sunday, involving a 13-month-old girl in Khyber district. Six of the eight cases recorded this year have been reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, underlining the importance of completing vaccination rounds in the province.

Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only countries where wild poliovirus is endemic. Authorities are expected to continue security and recovery efforts while the vaccination campaign proceeds, with the immediate focus on protecting frontline workers and ensuring that children in high-risk districts are not missed.