NICOSIA: Cyprus’ chief prosecutor appointed an independent investigator Sunday to oversee a criminal probe into the death of a Pakistani man who was allegedly shot by police earlier this month.
Attorney General George L. Savvides said in a statement that the decision followed a briefing by the chief of police regarding the ongoing inquiry into the incident.
Savvides said he had appointed an independent “criminal investigator in relation to the circumstances of the death of a young man from Pakistan.”
“Senior Counsel of the Republic, Mr. Ninos Kekkos, will lead the investigations being conducted by the police.”
The move comes a day after authorities said the Pakistani national was fatally shot with a police service weapon.
The announcement followed a postmortem exam that contradicted an initial forensic analysis ruling out criminal circumstances.
According to the postmortem, a bullet wound was found on the right side of the man’s back.
Police found the 24-year-old’s body in a field in a suburb of the capital Nicosia on January 6, a national holiday.
Several days later, police disclosed an earlier incident in which officers had fired shots during an attempt to intercept and arrest suspects, saying the death could be connected.
Local news website Phileleftheros reported Sunday that three police officers were being questioned over the shooting, which happened in a different place from where the body was found.
Phileleftheros reported that police had said shots were fired at the tires of a vehicle believed to be involved in illicit migrant smuggling near the line that divides the island into the UN-recognized south and the Turkish-backed north.
Irregular migrants frequently cross the so-called Green Line from the Turkish Cypriot north into the more affluent Greek-speaking Cyprus Republic.
Phileleftheros reported that the health ministry has requested a report from the police on the incident so it can review the forensic expert’s findings.
Cyprus orders probe into alleged police shooting of Pakistani man
https://arab.news/mg2a9
Cyprus orders probe into alleged police shooting of Pakistani man
- Police found the 24-year-old’s body in a field in a suburb of the capital Nicosia on January 6, a national holiday
- Announcement follows postmortem exam that contradicted initial forensic analysis ruling out criminal circumstances
Pakistan vaccinates over 13.6 million children on first day of nationwide anti-polio campaign
- Pakistan launched week-long nationwide campaign to vaccinate over 45 million children on Monday
- Health workers vaccinate over 7 million children in Punjab, three million in Sindh and 2.2 million in KP provinces
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani health workers vaccinated over13.6 million children on the first day of the nationwide anti-polio campaign, the National Emergency Operations (NEOC) said in a statement on Tuesday.
Pakistan launched the Feb. 2-8 campaign, the first of this year, in the country’s Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan (KP) areas on Monday. The campaign will target over 45 million children in the territories.
“Over 13.6 million children vaccinated nationwide on the first day of the campaign,” the NEOC said in a statement, adding that over 7.3 million children were vaccinated in the eastern Punjab province.
Over 3 million children were vaccinated in Sindh, 2.275 million in KP, 559,000 in the southwestern Balochistan province, 82,000 in GB and 233,000 in Azad Kashmir.
“Polio is an incurable disease that can cause lifelong disability in children,” the NEOC said. “Parents urged to open their doors to polio workers and ensure their children receive polio drops.”
Eliminating poliovirus remains a critical health initiative of Pakistan, which along with Afghanistan, is one of only two countries worldwide where the virus is endemic. Pakistan reported 31 cases of polio in 2025, which authorities say is a significant decline from the alarming 74 cases of the disease it reported in 2024.
Polio workers and their security escorts have repeatedly been targeted in militant attacks, particularly in parts of Pakistan’s KP and Balochistan provinces, complicating efforts to vaccinate children in remote areas.
A gun attack targeting a polio vaccination team in the northwestern Bajaur district in December 2025 left one police constable and a civilian dead.
Natural disasters, such as floods, have also disrupted vaccination campaigns in recent years.
