QUETTA: Unidentified assailants opened fire on a police team deployed for the security of polio vaccinators in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province on Tuesday, killing two cops hours after an anti-polio drive kicked off in the province.
A seven-day anti-polio drive began on Tuesday in Balochistan, Pakistan's largest province by land but its smallest in terms of population. According to the government, the drive aimed to administer polio drops to 2.5 million children up to five years of age in the province. Over 11,000 teams were constituted to administer polio drops to the children in the door-to-door campaign.
Pakistan's efforts to eliminate polio have often faced resistance from militant groups in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who believe the eradication program is part of a Western conspiracy to sterilize children. Attacks on polio teams or security forces guarding voluntary polio vaccinators are common in the two provinces. At least four Balochistan Constabulary soldiers were killed in a suicide attack carried-out by the Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan TTP in November 2022 while they were guarding polio teams in Quetta.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations Quetta, Zuhaib Hassan, said constables Muhammad Mehdi and Shoukat Ali were deployed to escort anti-polio teams in Quetta’s Nawa Killi area when armed men opened indiscriminate firing on the police team and escaped after the attack.
“Two policemen have been killed in the attack hours after they were guarding female polio workers providing anti-polio drops to children in Killi Shah Alam,” Hassan told Arab News. "The female polio workers escaped the attack and were shifted to a safe location," he added.
The policemen's bodies were shifted to the Sandeman Provincial Hospital in Quetta for the medico-legal process. No group so far claimed responsibility for the attack as authorities temporarily suspended the polio drive in Killi Shah Alam following the attack.
Chief Minister Balochistan Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo strongly condemned the incident and demanded an inquiry report from authorities. He called the attack a conspiracy against the future of children in Balochistan.
"Our enemies have been attempting to foil Pakistan's war against polio virus but we will thwart all conspiracies against anti-polio campaigns," Bizenjo said in a statement. "All resources will be utilized to apprehend the culprits involved in attacking policemen deployed for polio duties."
Pakistan reported one polio case in 2023 from the country's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan.
