Daily Times

Unidentified assailants attacked on police team, assigned to protect polio vaccination team at Tank district and killed a head constable and injured the other security personnel, said police on Saturday.

According to police, the polio team was on duty during polio eradication drive when unknown motorcyclists opened fire in Chadrar area of the district and killed head constable Muhammad Iqbal Anwar resident of DI Khan and FC personnel Rataj Khan injured.

The police and security forces condoned off the area to arrest the culprits involved in the incident. The injured was rushed to nearby hospital. The police registered the case and started investigation.

Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan expressed grief and sorrow over the attack on polio team at district Tank. The chief minister, in a condolence message, expressed sympathies with the bereaved families of martyred and injured cops in the incident. He directed the police department for early arrest of the culprits involved in the incident. He said that the provincial government is keen to eradicate polio from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but some anti-social elements did not want to and made attacks on polio teams at different areas.

On the other hand, the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed that its fighters attacked the polio team in Tank.

Extremist groups often target polio teams and security assigned to protect them, claiming the vaccination campaigns are a conspiracy to sterilise children.

In August, constable Dilawar Khan was on his way to polio duty in Dera Ismail Khan when unidentified assailants opened fire on him near the Atal Sharif area of Kalachi Tehsil, killing him on the spot while the accused fled, police had reported. In a second attack in the month of August, a Frontier Reserve Police officer was shot dead by unidentified persons in Peshawar within the limits of the Daudzai police station.