MOHMAND: Two members of the Elite Force were killed and a third officer was wounded on Tuesday when gunmen opened fire on police travelling to guard a polio vaccination team in Mohmand district, police said.
The firing took place in the Dag Tamanzai area, also rendered as Dog Tamanzi, in Pindiali tehsil. The officers were on their way to take up security duties for the vaccination drive when they came under attack, according to police accounts reported by Geo News and Aaj English.
The two personnel who died were identified as Arabi and Zahoor. The injured officer and the bodies of the dead were taken to a local hospital, Aaj English reported.
Police cordoned off the surrounding area and began a search operation to trace and arrest the attackers. No group had claimed responsibility for the shooting at the time the reports were published.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attack, describing it as intolerable, and paid tribute to the two officers who lost their lives. He extended condolences to their families, prayed for the injured officer’s recovery, and said those behind the attack would not be spared.
In a separate incident reported alongside the Mohmand attack, four polio workers were abducted by unidentified armed men in Tank district. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi called the abduction deeply regrettable, demanded the workers’ immediate and safe recovery, and said protecting vaccination teams was the government’s responsibility.
The violence struck on the second day of a subnational vaccination campaign running from 2 to 8 November, which aims to reach about 24 million children in 97 districts. The National Emergency Operations Centre said 6.68 million children were vaccinated on the opening day, including 1.37 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Pakistan has recorded eight wild poliovirus cases so far in 2026, six in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two in Sindh. The country, along with Afghanistan, remains one of only two countries where the virus is still endemic, and health officials have repeatedly urged parents to have their children vaccinated in every round. The site’s earlier preview of this drive is here: https://okarapressclubokara.com/anti-polio-drive-nov-2-24-million-children/
