TANK (PESHAWAR), 27 September 2024, (TON): Paid attackers on Friday, with a mission to give an impression that polio teams are unsafe in Pakistan, fired at the police van, causing partial damage to the vehicle, but the policemen guarding the team swiftly responded, forcing the gunmen to flee.

The incident took place in Gul Imam area of Tank district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. There was no casualty reported. Earlier, on 11 September 2024, gunmen on motorcycles shot a polio worker and a police officer escorting him during a vaccination campaign in Bajaur, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border. The day of the attack coincided with the anniversary of 9/11 attacks on the US.

As per the details, two attackers riding motorcycles with one accomplice each fired at the police van, causing partial damage to the vehicle, but the policemen guarding the team swiftly responded, forcing the gunmen to flee.

Security forces have started conducting a combing operation to apprehend the culprits involved in the attack.

Polio vaccination teams are not facing any challange as anti-polio campaigns in any province as these campaigns are consistently planned over three decades all around Pakistan. In order to give a wrong impression that the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province are against the West and consider polio campaigns are part of a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.

Though the polio immunization campaign in the country started in 1974, the efforts for eradication officially started in 1994. The nation wide campaign started in 1998 soon after attacks on American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

It is strange that despite several massive polio campaigns, under the supervision of UNICEF and WHO over three decades, in January 2024, it was again claimed that over 17 new polio cases were discovered. Ironically, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio transmission remains unchecked.