Gunmen kill two policemen bound for polio duty in Mohmand
A third constable was wounded in the firing near the Hashim Kor checkpost in Pindiali tehsil, and police say a search operation is under way for the attackers.
Two policemen were martyred and a third was injured when unidentified gunmen opened fire on them as they travelled to guard a polio vaccination team in Mohmand district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday, police said.
Headquarters Deputy Superintendent of Police Liaquat Ali told Dawn that the firing took place near the Hashim Kor police checkpost in the Dag Tamanzai area of Pindiali tehsil. He identified the dead constables as Zahoor Khan and Arbai Khan. The wounded policeman was not named in the reports available.
Geo News reported that the policemen were on their way to take up security duty for the ongoing vaccination campaign when they came under fire. Police have started a search operation in the area to arrest the attackers, the channel reported.
The campaign began on November 2 and runs until November 8, with a target of reaching about 24 million children in 97 districts, according to the National Emergency Operations Centre as cited by Geo News.
Geo News described the perpetrators as "hostile elements" who target polio teams in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan in an attempt to disrupt vaccination drives. Neither report cited a claim of responsibility.
Policemen guarding immunisation teams have been attacked before. Geo News reported that two policemen deployed with a polio team were martyred in September when unidentified gunmen opened fire in Nushki district of Balochistan.
Geo News also set out why the teams are escorted: polio is highly contagious, has no cure, and can cause lifelong paralysis or death, but can be prevented through vaccines used in 195 countries.
Pakistan has reported eight cases of wild poliovirus type 1 so far this year, six of them in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two in Sindh, Geo News reported.
How the reports differ
Dawn named the two dead constables, Zahoor Khan and Arbai Khan, and the officer who confirmed the attack, Headquarters DSP Liaquat Ali, and placed the firing near the Hashim Kor police checkpost in the Dag Tamanzai area of Pindiali tehsil. Geo News carried no names and no checkpost, describing the location only as Dag Tamanzai. Geo's headline called the incident an attack on a polio team, and its report added the search operation, the dates and reach of the vaccination campaign and the September shooting in Nushki, while Dawn's headline said the policemen were en route to polio duty.
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