Bannu Police Strike After Attacks On Polio Vaccination Teams In KP

PESHAWAR: More than 100 policemen providing security to polio vaccination teams in restive border areas went on strike on Thursday after a series of deadly militant attacks this week.

Police deployed regularly to protect door-to-door polio workers are often attacked by militants waging a war against security forces.

Hundreds of police and polio workers have been killed in the past decade.

“Police officers will not be performing polio duties,” said a police officer involved in the protest, who did not want to be named. AFP.

“If necessary, army and border troops should be deployed along with the police to protect the polio teams so that they understand how difficult this task is,” the official said.

Another officer said negotiations broke down between the protesting police in Bannu district, in the northwestern border province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and senior officials.

“Any constable who finds out about the protest leaves his polio duty to join the demonstration,” said the second officer. AFP.

At least two police officers and a polio worker have been shot dead in separate attacks in rural areas near the Afghan border since the latest vaccination drive began on Monday, including an officer accompanying a group on Thursday.

Nine people were also injured on Monday in a bomb attack on a polio vaccination team. The Pakistani Taliban, a separate group from the Afghan Taliban, claimed responsibility for most of the attacks.

Increase in polio and militancy

The country has seen an increase in polio cases this year, recording 17 so far in 2024, compared with six in 2023. Health officials had aimed to vaccinate 30 million children in a week-long campaign.

“Due to the police strike, around 5,000 children have missed their vaccination and alternative arrangements are being made to cover them,” a government official said in the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

According to the United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF), the number of polio cases in Pakistan has fallen dramatically from about 20,000 a year in the early 1990s.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks since the Taliban government returned to power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021, mainly in KP but also in southwestern Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.

Islamabad accuses Kabul’s leaders of failing to root out militants holed up on Afghan soil as they prepare to launch attacks in Pakistan.