DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Thirteen people were wounded when a roadside bomb targeted a police vehicle escorting an anti-polio team in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province on Monday, officials said.
The northwestern Pakistani province, which borders Afghanistan, has been the scene of a number of attacks on police, security forces and anti-polio vaccination teams as well as kidnappings in recent months.
The blast, which took place in Wana town of KP’s South Waziristan tribal district, injured seven policemen and three anti-polio vaccinators among 13 people, according to Wana police spokesman Habib Islam.
“The police vehicle escorting polio team came under an improvised explosive device (IED) attack near Karikot, a rugged village on the outskirts of Wana,” Islam told Arab News, adding the injured persons were immediately shifted to the Wana District Headquarters Hospital.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Hammad Mehmood, medical superintendent at the hospital, told Arab News that a total of 13 wounded persons were brought to the facility and most of them had suffered minor injuries except for one.
“The critically wounded person was referred to Dera Ismail Khan for treatment,” he added.
The incident came as Pakistan launched an anti-polio vaccination drive in 115 districts across the South Asian country, which has witnessed a virus outbreak this year.
The administration in South Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan and was once a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, also kicked off door-to-door campaign to vaccinate more than 70,000 children against the crippling disease.
In the past, Pakistani Taliban and other militants have targeted scores of anti-polio vaccinators and their security escorts in the restive region.
In July, two cops on polio duty were injured in separate attacks in the Tank and Dera Ismail Khan districts of the province.
In January this year, five policemen were killed and 22 others were injured after a blast targeted a polio protection team in Mamund village of KP’s Bajaur district, according to police. The police contingent was heading out to far-flung areas in the province to protect polio volunteers when it was targeted by a bomb.
Opposition to inoculation grew in the region after the US Central Intelligence Agency organized a fake vaccination drive to help track down former Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad in 2011.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where polio remains an endemic.
13 injured as roadside bomb targets anti-polio team in northwest Pakistan
https://arab.news/w45qa
13 injured as roadside bomb targets anti-polio team in northwest Pakistan
- The incident came as Pakistan launched an anti-polio vaccination drive in 115 districts across the South Asian country
- No group claimed responsibility but Pakistani Taliban, other militants have previously targeted anti-polio teams in region
Pakistan arrests suspect arriving from Cambodia amid crackdown on human smuggling
- Suspect worked at an “online fraud company” in Cambodia, later started smuggling people from Pakistan, says FIA
- Pakistan has intensified crackdown against human smugglers after hundreds of migrants drowned near Pylos in 2023
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Sunday said it had arrested a key suspect involved in smuggling humans who had arrived from Cambodia, alleging he was also part of an international fraud network.
The suspect, identified as Zainullah, was arrested by FIA officials when he arrived in the southern port city of Karachi from Cambodia.
Zainullah had traveled from Pakistan to Cambodia in September 2024, a press release issued by the agency said.
“He worked at an online fraud company in Cambodia and later became involved as an agent in recruiting individuals from Pakistan,” the FIA said.
The FIA said it recovered images of multiple individuals’ passports, payment receipts and bank transaction records after extracting data from Zainullah’s phone.
It said the suspect received money through personal bank accounts and a cryptocurrency account.
“The suspect has been handed over to the FIA Anti-Human Trafficking Circle, Karachi, for further legal proceedings,” the FIA said.
“Further investigation is underway.”
Pakistan intensified action against illegal migration in 2023 after hundreds of migrants, including 262 Pakistanis, drowned when an overcrowded vessel sank off the Greek town of Pylos, one of the deadliest boat disasters in the Mediterranean.
Authorities say they continue to target networks sending citizens abroad through dangerous routes, following heightened scrutiny at airports and a series of arrests involving forged documents.
Pakistan’s interior ministry said this week illegal migration to Europe has declined by 47 percent this year after its nationwide crackdown, saying that more than 1,700 human smugglers have been arrested in 2025.
