PESHAWAR: A gun attack on a polio vaccination team in Pakistan’s northwestern Bajaur district killed a police constable and a civilian on Tuesday, prompting authorities to suspend vaccination activities in the area, officials said.

The attack took place in a small settlement of Bajaur’s Salarzai tehsil, near the Afghan border, where militants have targeted health workers and security personnel involved in polio campaigns in the past despite police escorts assigned to protect vaccination teams.

Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio remains endemic, and vaccination drives have frequently been disrupted by militant violence, misinformation and vaccine hesitancy.

Authorities routinely deploy police and paramilitary forces to guard polio teams, but attacks have continued in recent years.

“The incident occurred at approximately 12:20 p.m. in Village Tangi Loei Khel, UC Khar 2, when unidentified individuals opened fire on Constable Sajjad, killing him on the spot,” said Shadab Younas, a media officer at the Peshawar Emergency Operations Center.

A civilian bystander, Fazal Rahim, was also hit by gunfire and later died of his injuries after being taken to Khar Hospital, Younas continued, adding that the polio team itself was unharmed.

Global polio tracking data show that 30 of the 39 confirmed wild poliovirus type 1 cases worldwide in 2025 were reported in Pakistan, with the remainder in Afghanistan. Pakistan recorded 74 polio cases in 2024, a sharp rise from six cases in 2023 and just one in 2021, underscoring the fragility of eradication efforts.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and directed authorities to swiftly identify and bring the perpetrators to justice, according to a statement from his office.

He said the assault on those serving the nation’s polio eradication effort was “deeply regrettable” and reaffirmed that the campaign would continue with full resolve until the disease is eliminated.

The National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) said the nationwide polio campaign was continuing for a second day, reporting that more than 13.3 million children were vaccinated across the country on the first day of the drive.

The campaign, which started on Dec. 15 and will continue until Dec. 21, aims to administer oral polio drops to more than 45 million children across the country.

Health officials urged parents and communities to cooperate with vaccination teams and ensure children under five receive the drops.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are conducting the polio campaign simultaneously, the NEOC said.