PESHAWAR: The administration in the northwestern Pakistani district of Tank has banned pillion riding and the assembly of more than five people among other measures to protect anti-polio vaccinators and security personnel guarding them, amid a surge in militant attacks in the region.
The development comes amid an anti-polio drive in the district, which is scheduled to run from Nov 20 till Nov 25, to inoculate around 86,550 children and days after the killing of two policemen in the district.
Tank and the adjacent Dera Ismail Khan district in northwest Pakistan have witnessed eight attacks in the last three weeks, compelling officials to take measures to ensure security of polio workers during the ongoing drive.
In a notification issued on Thursday, the Tank administration, under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) that empowers it to issue orders in public interest, has banned pillion-riding, assembly of more than five people, the use of vehicles with tinted glasses and the display of firearms from Nov 17 till Nov 30.
“During the last two days, two policemen were killed by gunmen riding motorbikes,” Tank Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Shoaib told Arab News. "We have decided to impose Section 144 to thwart any untoward incident concerning police and polio teams."
Shoaib said the measures would help prevent any possible attacks against polio teams and the law enforcement personnel guarding them.
Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by poliovirus mainly affecting children under the age of ten years. It invades the nervous system, and can cause paralysis or even death.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where polio continues to threaten the health and well-being of children.
Tank, an underdeveloped district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, shares its border with the volatile South Waziristan tribal district, which has long been a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban militants, though successive military campaigns over the last decade pushed the militants across the border into Afghanistan.
However, militant attacks have sharply increased in Pakistan's northwest since the Pakistani Taliban called off their truce with the government in Nov 2022.
Pakistani officials have frequently said that militants targeting polio teams and security forces operate from the neighboring Afghanistan. The Taliban administration denies the accusation.
Tank District Police Officer (DPO) Iftikhar Ali Shah told Arab News the decision to impose Section 144 was taken following the killing of two policemen in separate incidents of targeted killings this week.
“Two police personnel were shot dead in a target killing spree by terrorists, forcing the district administration and security officials to impose the measures to conduct the polio eradication drive in a peaceful way,” Shah said.
Shadab Younas, an official at the Emergency Operation Center for polio in the provincial capital of Peshawar, said the measures to protect polio workers and officials guarding the inoculation teams were "encouraging" for the conduct of the anti-polio drive.
“It is the prerogative of the district administration to adopt any measures for successful conduct of anti-polio drives and all these steps are encouraging,” she said.
But Riaz Bangash, a security analyst, says the imposition of Section 144 would not help contain attacks on police and security personnel as these were only a "short-term solution" to the decades-old issue of militancy that had ravaged the entire northwestern Pakistani province.
“The country’s policy-makers need to work out an inclusive anti-terror policy to deal with the scourge with iron hands,” he said.
"The nation wants a long-term solution to get rid of terrorism once and for all. The imposition of Section 144 is a short-term solution, which will not produce any tangible results."
