PAKISTANI TALIBAN CLAIM KILLING OF POLIO VACCINATOR GUARD

The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for killing a police officer on Monday. The officer was en route to protect polio vaccinators on the first day of a nationwide immunization campaign, following a year of increased polio cases.

The officer, who was traveling in the Jamrud town area of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was shot dead by two motorcycle riders, according to local police official Zarmat Khan. The officer died instantly at the scene.

Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only countries where polio remains endemic, and militants have long targeted vaccination teams and their security escorts. The Pakistani Taliban stated they carried out the "targeted attack" and claimed to have seized the officer's weapon.

In 2024, Pakistan reported at least 73 polio infections, up from just six cases in 2023. The vaccination campaign, which began on Monday, is the first of the year and will last for a week.

Despite the incident, the polio vaccination drive continues in the area, Khan said. Senior police official Abdul Hameed Afridi confirmed the details of the attack and said an investigation has been launched.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif addressed the violence in a statement from his office, affirming that the anti-polio campaign would continue with full vigor. Polio can be easily prevented with a few drops of vaccine, but numerous vaccination workers and their escorts have been killed over the years.

In the past, some clerics falsely claimed that the vaccine contained pork or alcohol, declaring it forbidden for Muslims.

Recently, attacks have increasingly focused on vulnerable police escorts accompanying vaccinators door-to-door. Last year, many Pakistani policemen who accompany medical teams went on strike after a string of militant attacks targeting them.

Militant attacks have increased in Pakistan since the Taliban regained power in neighboring Afghanistan. More than 1,600 people were killed in 2024, making it the deadliest year in nearly a decade, according to the Centre for Research and Security Studies, an Islamabad-based analysis group.

Islamabad accuses Kabul’s new rulers of failing to address militants organizing on Afghan soil, a charge that the Taliban government denies.

In November 2024, a bombing targeting police guarding vaccinators near a school in southwestern Balochistan province killed at least seven people, including five children. Balochistan, which neighbors Afghanistan, had the highest number of polio cases in 2024, despite being sparsely populated.