PESHAWAR: Gunmen shot dead a Pakistan police officer guarding a polio vaccination team on Wednesday in a remote area close to the Afghan border, police said.
Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only countries where polio is endemic and militants have for decades targeted vaccination teams and their security escorts.
Polio has resurged in Pakistan, with two cases reported so far this year, and at least 73 polio infections last year, compared to six in 2023.
“Two motorcycle riders opened fire... as a result, the police officer died on the spot, but the polio team remained unharmed,” Niaz Muhammad, a police officer in Bajaur district, told AFP.
Bajaur district in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province shares a 52-kilometer (32-mile) border with Afghanistan.
The start of the polio campaign had been delayed in the district for security reasons, after a rise in militant attacks in the area, said Waqas Rafiq, a senior police official.
“Despite the attack, the campaign continues in all areas (of the district) except the site of the incident,” he said.
Polio mostly affects children under five and sometimes causes lifelong paralysis but can easily be prevented by the oral administration of a few drops of vaccine.
Over the past decade, hundreds of police officers and health workers have been killed by militants waging an offensive against the Pakistani state.
In the past, firebrand clerics falsely claimed the vaccine contained pork or alcohol, forbidding it for consumption by Muslims.
A fake vaccination campaign organized by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Pakistan in 2011 to track Osama bin Laden compounded the mistrust.
Pakistan has witnessed a dramatic uptick in attacks in its remote border regions since the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2021, with Islamabad claiming hostile groups plan their attacks from Afghan soil.
The Taliban government denies the claim.
It comes as the Champions Trophy cricket tournament kicked off in Pakistan on Wednesday, with the hosts and seven international teams visiting Rawalpindi, Karachi and Lahore under improved security.
Gunmen shoot dead policeman guarding Pakistan polio team
https://arab.news/95hq3
Gunmen shoot dead policeman guarding Pakistan polio team
- Two motorcycle riders open fire on police officer in northwestern Bajaur district, say police
- Militants have attacked vaccination teams, police guarding them over the years in Pakistan
Pakistan says 12 parties have filed bids for two new PSL franchises
- This year’s Pakistan Super League tournament will feature two new franchises to existing roster of six
- Pakistan Cricket Board says bidders hail from countries such as Australia, Canada, US, UAE, Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced on Wednesday that it has received bids from 12 interested parties for two new franchises of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) tournament, saying the development reflects the league’s commercial appeal.
The 11th edition of this year’s PSL will be held from Mar. 26 to May 11, with the PCB announcing that two new teams will be part of the tournament this time.
Pakistan held roadshows earlier this month in London and New York to invite investors from around the world to bid for the two new franchises. The PCB allowed interested parties to bid for the new franchises till Dec. 22.
“The Pakistan Cricket Board has announced an exceptional and encouraging response to the tender issued for the sale of two new franchises of the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL),” the PCB said in a statement.
“Within the stipulated deadline, 12 parties have formally submitted their bids.”
The bidders belong to five continents, including the US, Australia, Canada, the UAE and Pakistan, adding that it “clearly reflects the PSL’s growing global popularity and commercial appeal.”
The PCB said that the results of the current phase of the bidding process will be announced on Dec. 27, adding that in the next stage, technically qualified bidders will have the opportunity to buy the two new teams through an open competition bidding process.
This bidding process will be held on Jan. 8, the board clarified.
“The Pakistan Cricket Board is committed to completing this process in a transparent and competitive manner in line with international standards, to ensure the continued expansion and growth of the HBL Pakistan Super League,” it concluded.
The PSL is Pakistan’s premier T20 cricket league that features a mix of local and international players and coaches. It features six teams, each named after a Pakistani city.
With a little over 10 years since it was launched, the PSL has attracted praise from cricket experts and analysts worldwide and competed for viewership with prominent cricket leagues around the world such as the Big Bash League, Caribbean Premier League, Indian Premier League and others.
