ISLAMABAD — A police officer assigned to protect health workers during Pakistan’s first polio vaccination campaign of the year was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen on Monday, Pakistani media reported.
The attack occurred in Jamrud, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to local police official Jamshed Khan.
Pakistan has deployed thousands of police officers to guard health workers who go door-to-door to vaccinate children against polio. Militant groups have long opposed these campaigns, falsely claiming they are part of a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
More than 200 polio workers and police officers protecting them have been killed in Pakistan since the 1990s, according to health officials. In December, a roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle carrying police officers assigned to a polio team in the country’s restive northwest, killing three officers and wounding two others.
While militant groups no longer claim responsibility for such attacks, Pakistani authorities believe that the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its breakaway factions remain behind them. The TTP is an ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif launched the vaccination campaign on Sunday, meeting with medical staff and international aid representatives. The campaign aims to vaccinate 44.2 million children under 5 by the end of next Sunday.
Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only two countries where polio has never been eradicated. Pakistan reported one case in January and 77 cases in 2023, while Afghanistan had 23 cases in 2024, according to WHO data.
