Pakistani aid workers vaccinating children against polio have come under attack in Pakistan, authorities said on Thursday.
The aid workers were unhurt but five policemen were injured, the authorities said.
The attacks come amid a spike in violence committed by the local branch of the Taliban, Tehreek-e-Taliban-Pakistan, which operates along the rugged frontier between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Recent attacks have hit army patrols and outposts, killing and injuring dozens of soldiers. Military operations in response have killed many of the militants.
-
Security officers guard a road leading to a counter-terrorism centre in Bannu, a district in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. AP Photo -
Pakistan's Taliban commander Latif Mehsud, centre, a close aide to the former chief of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Hakimullah Mehsud, sits on an armed vehicle in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. AFP -
Officers stand guard along a road they blocked after Taliban militants seized a police station in Bannu. AFP -
Soldiers drive towards North Waziristan from Bannu at the start of an offensive against Pakistani Taliban militants in the restive ethnic Pashtun tribal region. Reuters -
People take part in a protest a day after an attack on a school bus in Mingora, in the Swat District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. AFP -
Security officials and relatives attend a funeral ceremony of a slain policeman who was killed in an attack claimed by the TTP in the border town of Chaman. AFP -
Pakistani security officials check identity cards at a roadside check point in Karachi. EPA -
Pakistani security officials in Karachi. EPA -
A Pakistani security official in Karachi. EPA -
Surrendered Taliban militants at a Pakistani military compound in Swat valley on August 20, 2009. AFP -
Pakistani security officials at the site of a bomb blast in Jandol town, 100km from the once Taliban-infested Swat Valley on September 16, 2012. AFP -
Armed Pakistani militiamen gather in the former Taliban stronghold area of Puchar in Swat valley on September 14, 2009. AFP -
Internally displaced Pakistani civilians pray before breaking their fast during Ramadan in Bannu, northern Pakistan, on July 6, 2014. AFP -
Ayesha Abdul Jalil, 16, speaks at a tribute to Malala Yousufzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban in the Swat valley, at the Embassy of Pakistan in Abu Dhabi. Razan Alzayani / The National
The Taliban have a long history of attacking aid workers delivering polio vaccines. In the past, they have accused aid workers of taking part in a foreign conspiracy to sterilise the population.
Other vaccine drives have been accused of secretly working with foreign intelligence agencies to gather information on the group.
An incurable disease, polio mainly affects children under five years of age, and in some cases can cause paralysis and death, but it is preventable by an easily administered vaccine.
In this latest incident, police returned fire after coming under attack near a bridge in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to local police chief Aman Ullah.
The police chief, who was travelling with the convoy to a nearby vaccination site, said between six to eight suspected militants ambushed them, opened fire and threw hand grenades at the police van.
The latest anti-polio campaign started this week, the first in 2023.
In late November, a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up near a lorry carrying police officers on their way to protect polio workers in the south-western city of Quetta. A police officer in the vehicle was killed, as were three members of a family travelling in another car.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the November 30 attack. A month earlier, in October, gunmen riding on a motorcycle shot and killed a police officer assigned to guard a polio vaccination team in south-western Balochistan province.
Pakistan, which along with neighbouring Afghanistan is the only country where polio remains endemic, regularly launches vaccination campaigns.
Since last April, Pakistan has registered 20 new polio cases — all in the north-west, where parents often refuse to inoculate children. The outbreak has been a blow to government efforts aimed at eradicating the disease.
