At least five police officers responsible for protecting vaccine recipients from polio were killed when a bomb exploded on their vehicle in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, we learned from administrative and police sources.
“A police truck carrying about 25 police officers, who were in charge of the anti-polio campaign, was attacked by an IED [engin explosif improvisé] ” Anwar Ul-Haq, a senior administrative official in Bajaur district, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
According to this source, five police officers were killed and 21 were injured. The death toll was confirmed by Kashif Zulfiqar, a senior police official in the district. The explosion occurred in Bajaur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the border with Afghanistan, a region that has seen increased attacks in recent months.
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There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. But Islamist militants, particularly those from the Pakistani Taliban, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), have for years targeted polio vaccinators and the police officers who ensure their safety.
Deterioration in security
Polio vaccinations are under constant suspicion in Pakistan, where conspiracy theories abound, particularly that vaccines are part of a Western conspiracy to sterilize Muslim children. Another of these theories is that vaccines contain pork fat and are therefore forbidden for Muslims.
This mistrust, stoked by ultra-conservative clerics, increased after the CIA organized a false vaccination campaign to find Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, who was killed in Abbottabad, North, in 2011.
Pakistan is one of only two countries in the world, along with Afghanistan, where polio remains endemic. In these two countries, vaccination teams are regularly targeted by Islamist militants.
Pakistan has been facing deteriorating security for several months, especially since the Taliban came to power in Kabul in August 2021, especially in the border regions of Afghanistan. Islamabad believes some of these attacks are planned on Afghan soil where the attackers would have “sanctuaries,” something Kabul denies.
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