2024-01-08 07:46:01
KHAR, Pakistan (AP) — A roadside bomb exploded Monday near a van carrying police officers assigned to protect workers in a polio immunization campaign in Pakistan’s restive northwest. At least six people were killed and 10 injured, according to authorities.
The attack occurred in Mamund, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, according to police officer Kashif Zulfiquar.
Some of the injured officers were in critical condition at a government hospital.
Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are often marked by violence. Islamist militants often attack vaccination teams and the police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
No one initially claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack, which occurred hours following authorities began the first anti-polio campaign of the new year.
The operation was stopped in the area where the attack occurred and all polio workers were safe, Zulfiquar said. Authorities said it would continue in other areas of the country.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in the world where polio remains endemic. At least six new cases of polio were detected in Pakistan last year, almost all in the northwest, where parents often refuse to inoculate children. The outbreak has been a blow to the country’s efforts to eradicate the disease, which can cause severe paralysis in children.
Pakistan reported just one case in 2021, raising hopes that it was close to eradicating polio. However, later other cases began to be detected despite efforts once morest polio.
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Associated Press journalist Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
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