Two policemen deployed with polio teams martyred in KP's Bajaur

Lead

Two police officers were killed in separate attacks in Pakistan's northwestern Bajaur district on Monday while providing security for polio vaccination teams, according to police and security officials. The incidents occurred on the first day of a four-day anti-polio campaign in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), with both attacks taking place in the Salarzai Tehsil of Bajaur.

Coverage Comparison

Initial reports from Dawn described a single incident in which a policeman was martyred. A subsequent report from Dawn detailed two separate attacks, both in Salarzai Tehsil, about two hours apart. Deutsche Welle (DW) reported the deaths as occurring in two separate attacks carried out by motorcycle-riding militants, citing a senior security official.

All reports agree that the attacks happened while the officers were assigned to protect health workers administering polio drops to children. The attacks are the latest in a series of incidents targeting police and health workers involved in polio eradication efforts in Pakistan.

Key Claims

According to Bajaur police spokesperson Israr Khan, the first attack occurred in the Dag Qala area on Monday morning. The officer, identified as 35-year-old Constable Sayed Aziz, was returning home from duty when assailants opened fire on him. Salarzai Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Jamal Shah told reporters that Aziz sustained multiple bullet wounds and died on the way to the hospital. A police team reached the scene and began tracing the attackers, who had fled, the DSP said.

The second incident occurred in the Tabai area on Monday afternoon, about two hours after the first attack. The police spokesperson told Dawn that Constable Sayed Qadar Shah, 45, who was escorting a polio team, was also returning home after duty when unidentified attackers ambushed him with automatic rifles. He was critically wounded and shifted to the district headquarters hospital, but succumbed to his injuries.

No group claimed responsibility for either attack at the time of reporting, and the motive was not immediately clear. However, police officers and health workers involved in polio campaigns have been targeted in the past. In December last year, two people, including a constable, were killed in an attack on a polio team in Bajaur. This year's first attack on a polio team occurred in February in Balochistan's Chaman, where a police officer was killed. Last month, a police constable was martyred and four others were injured in an attack on a law enforcement party en route to provide security for polio teams in KP's Hangu district, as reported by Dawn.

Deutsche Welle added that Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attacks and offered condolences to the families of the officers. DW also reported that polio remains endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and that misinformation about the vaccine has circulated in rural Pakistan, with militants falsely claiming the vaccination drives are a Western conspiracy to sterilize Muslim children. More than 200 polio workers and police officers who have protected them have been killed in Pakistan since the 1990s, according to DW.

An investigation has been launched to identify the attackers, police officials said.