ISLAMABAD: A policeman was killed and an anti-polio vaccinator injured in a gun attack in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, police said on Monday, as the South Asian country launched an anti-polio drive to reach 44 million children.
Polio is a paralyzing disease that has no cure. Multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five is essential to provide children high immunity against this terrible disease.
The attack took place in KP’s Karak district, when unidentified gunmen riding motorbikes opened fire on an anti-polio vaccination team, according to KP governor’s spokesman Tariq Habib. The deceased policeman, Mohammad Irfan, was guarding the vaccinators. The body and the injured vaccinator were shifted to hospital.
“A large contingent of police reached the spot and cordoned off the area and a search operation has been launched there,” Habib said in a statement.
Pakistan is responding to an intense resurgence of Wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) this year, with 63 cases reported so far. Of these, 26 are from Balochistan, 18 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 17 from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif launched the vaccination campaign, which will continue till Dec. 22. During the drive, polio vaccinators will go house to house in 143 districts to immunize children under the age of five years, according to the polio program.
“Polio is a dangerous disease which can cripple your children for life. In fact, it can be life-threatening,” Sharif said at the campaign launch. “Only two drops [of anti-polio vaccine] can save your children from being disabled forever. Come and let’s protect the future of our and the nation’s children.”
He said the federation and all provinces were jointly fighting this epidemic and God willing, they would eliminate the disease through their collective wisdom and efforts, thanking vaccinators for their efforts to eliminate the virus despite harsh weather and terrain in far-flung areas.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last two countries in the world where polio remains endemic.
Immunization campaigns have succeeded in most countries and have come close in Pakistan, but persistent problems remain. In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 cases annually but in 2018 the number dropped to eight cases. Six cases were reported in 2023 and only one in 2021.
Pakistan’s chief health officer said on Nov. 10 an estimated 500,000 children had missed polio vaccination during the last countrywide inoculation drive.
Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994 but efforts to eradicate the virus have since been undermined by vaccine misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners who say immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies. Militant groups also frequently attack and kill members of polio vaccine teams.
In July 2019, a vaccination drive in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was thwarted after mass panic was created by rumors that children were fainting or vomiting after being immunized. This month, Pakistani authorities postponed a planned anti-polio vaccination campaign in the northwestern Kurram district, citing a fragile security situation after weeks of deadly sectarian clashes in the region.
Public health studies in Pakistan have shown that a lack of knowledge about vaccines, poverty and rural residency are also factors that commonly influence whether parents vaccinate their children against polio.
Ayesha Raza Farooq, PM Sharif’s focal person on polio eradication, said on Sunday that all children up to the age of five must be given polio drops.
“Polio vaccine is completely safe, effective and provided absolutely free of cost,” she added.
 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday reaffirmed their resolve to wipe out militancy from the country as the South Asian nation observed 10th anniversary of a militant attack on an army-run school in Peshawar, which killed more than 130 children in 2014.

A group of heavily armed militants belonging to the proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) entered Army Public School (APS) Peshawar on Dec. 16, 2014, killing 134 children and over a dozen staff members. The incident took place in a high-security area in Peshawar, capital of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The massacre at the school sparked worldwide condemnation and in response, Pakistan reinstated the death penalty after a six-year moratorium and executed many TTP militants as well as launched a military campaign in the country’s northwestern tribal districts to purge the area of TTP militants.

Thousands of Pakistanis have lost their lives in attacks claimed by the TTP since 2007, including an assassination attempt on Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai. The country has also seen a renewed surge in attacks since a fragile truce between the TTP and the government broke down in Nov. 2022.

“No amount of time can erase the trauma of the children who witnessed the unfathomable horrors on that day, nor can it ease the grief and suffering of the families who lost their loved ones. As we honor their memory, the entire nation joins me in paying tribute to the bravery of our children, the heroism of the teachers, the sacrifices of their families, and the valor of our security forces,” PM Sharif said on X.

“Let us reaffirm our commitment to building a safer, more secure Pakistan, where no innocent will be harmed, no child will have to live in fear, injustice will be punished and punished severely. This is a promise we must make together. We owe it to the victims of this tragedy, to ensure that their lives were not lost in vain.”

Pakistani authorities also announced closure of schools and colleges in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore on Monday on the anniversary of the deadly attack.

In his message, President Zardari said the day reminded the nation to unite against militancy and increase efforts to eliminate this menace, Pakistani state media reported. He extended his sympathies to the relatives of innocent children, saying that Pakistan would never let militants succeed in their nefarious designs.

“The APS tragedy united the nation against terrorism,” Zardari said. “The history was witness that Pakistani nation did not lose courage in the face of tragedies.”

In recent months, Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, which border Afghanistan, have witnessed a number of attacks by the TTP and other religious and separatist militant groups that targeted security forces convoys and check posts, besides targeted killings and kidnappings of law enforcers, government officials and civilians.

The TTP, or the Pakistani Taliban, is a separate group but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban.

Pakistan has frequently accused neighboring Afghanistan of sheltering and supporting militant groups, urging the Taliban administration in Kabul to prevent its territory from being used by armed factions to launch cross-border attacks.

Afghan officials deny involvement, insisting Pakistan’s security issues are an internal matter of Islamabad.