Five killed after gunmen attack polio teams in east Afghanistan

No militant group has claimed responsibility for the killings

Afghan men carry the coffin of one of polio vaccination health workers shot and killed by unknown gunmen at separate locations in Jalalabad. Reuters

Gunmen on Tuesday attacked members of polio teams in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least five, officials said.

No militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks in the city of Jalalabad. Along with the five killed, at least three team members were injured, said Dr Jan Mohammad, who co-ordinates the anti-polio drive for the east of the country.

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Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan are the only two remaining countries in the world where polio is endemic after Nigeria was last year declared free of the virus.

In March, the self-declared Islamic State group said it shot and killed three women who were part of a polio vaccination team, also in Jalalabad, the capital of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province.

The group is headquartered in eastern Afghanistan and while the Sunni militant organisation's numbers are believed to have decreased after recent government offensives and clashes with the rival Taliban, militants have lately stepped up attacks on minority Shiite Muslims.

It has also taken responsibility for several targeted killings that have taken aim at the country’s nascent civil society, as well as journalists and legal professionals.

Although struggling with a new, third surge in coronavirus cases, the Afghan government has in recent months sought to inoculate 9.6 million children against polio with the help of the UN children's fund. In 2020, Afghanistan reported 54 new cases of the disease.

The increased violence comes as the US and Nato are completing their military withdrawal from the country.

The estimated 2,500 to 3,500 US soldiers and 7,000 Nato allied troops are to leave by September 11, although there are projections they may be gone by mid-July.

Although not uncommon in Afghanistan, attacks on polio vaccination teams are more frequent in Pakistan, where the Pakistani Taliban and other militants regularly stage attacks on polio teams and the security forces escorting them.

They also carry out strikes again vaccination centres and health workers, claiming that anti-polio drives are part of a alleged western conspiracy to sterilise children or collect intelligence.

An Afghan man cries for his brother, one of the polio vaccination health workers shot and killed by unknown gunmen at separate locations in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Reuters

Last week, two policemen who were providing security to polio vaccinators were shot and killed in north-west Pakistan.

These attacks increased after it was revealed that a fake hepatitis vaccination campaign was used as a ruse by the US Central Intelligence Agency in the hunt for Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden was killed by US commandos in 2011 in Pakistan.