JAVED KHAN MOHMAND
PESHAWAR
Two policemen escorting a polio vaccination team were martyred and four polio workers abducted in separate incidents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday, officials said. In the first incident, unidentified armed men ambushed a police party in the Pindiali tehsil in Mohmand tribal district.
District Police Officer (DPO) Mohmand Raza Khan told media persons the policemen were providing security to a polio vaccination team when gunmen opened fire on their vehicle. DPO said two personnel were killed on the spot, while another sustained serious injuries.
The injured policeman and bodies of the deceased were shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital in Ghalanai. District police chief maintained that the security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to track down the attackers. In a separate incident in Tank district, four members of a polio vaccination team were kidnapped at gunpoint.
DPO Abdul Samad Khan said the workers were performing their duties in Jivus village of Sheikh Utar Union Council when armed men intercepted them and took them to an undisclosed location.
The abducted workers were identified as Union Council Monitoring Officer Qadeer Khan, Area In-charge Usman Khan and community vaccinators Umair and Sameer. Police and security forces launched a cordon-and-search operation in the adjoining areas to recover the kidnapped workers.
Meanwhile, KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi condemned both incidents and expressed grief over the martyrdom of the policemen. He called for immediate measures to ensure the safe recovery of the abducted polio workers.
It is pertinent to mention here that the incidents occurred on the first day of a four-day anti-polio campaign being conducted in 27 districts of the province.
According to officials, 20,772 teams have been deployed to administer polio drops to 4.8 million children under the age of five.
