Two Policemen Martyred in Mohmand Attack on Polio Duty

Photo: K.M. Chaudary/AP, a health worker giving polio drops in Lahore on 2 November during the current campaign, not the attack scene in Mohmand

Two policemen were martyred and a third was injured in Mohmand district on Tuesday when gunmen opened fire on them as they headed out to guard polio vaccination teams. The men had not even reached the children they were meant to protect. They were stopped on the road, near a police checkpost, and shot.

Police named the martyred constables as Zahoor Khan and Arbai Khan. Sepoy Sabir Khan was injured in the same firing. Dawn reported that the attack took place near the Hashim Kor police checkpost in the Dag Tamanzai area of Pindiali tehsil, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The Associated Press reported that suspected militants on a motorcycle carried out the drive-by shooting while the officers were travelling to a nearby village to guard vaccination teams. The attackers fled, and no group had claimed the attack by Tuesday afternoon.

Geo News reported that police have launched a search operation in the area to find the attackers. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attack and paid tribute to the two martyred policemen, saying they worked for a healthier future for the country.

The attack came on the second day of a sub-national polio campaign that began on 2 November and runs to 8 November, aiming to reach around 24 million children under five in 97 districts, according to the National Emergency Operations Centre. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where wild poliovirus is still endemic, and Pakistan has reported eight cases this year, six of them in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two in Sindh.

There was a second worrying report from the province on Tuesday. Dawn reported that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi took notice of reports that four polio workers were abducted in Tank district on Monday, and ordered immediate and effective steps for their safe recovery. He called targeting polio workers against humanity and the national interest, and said the government must provide security to polio teams.

This is not the first time guards have been killed on polio duty. In September, two policemen guarding a polio team were martyred in Noshki in Balochistan. In April, a police constable was martyred and four others were injured in an attack on a party heading to guard polio teams in Hangu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The pattern is grim and familiar: the workers who carry the vaccine drops, and the policemen who walk beside them, are treated as targets.

For parents, the plain point is this. Polio has no cure, but the drops prevent it, and the campaign only works if teams can reach every street safely. Every attack like this one makes that job harder, and leaves children in the area at greater risk. Pakistan has already cut its polio cases from 31 last year to eight so far this year, and the seventh case of 2026 was reported in Karachi before this campaign began. That progress is fragile, and it depends on days like today going safely.

Watch for whether police make arrests in Mohmand, whether the four abducted workers in Tank are recovered safely, and whether the vaccination campaign continues on schedule in the district. The country is also watching wider questions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, from the debate over reversing the Fata merger to the push to speed up loans for small businesses and farmers, but today the story is simpler: two men who went out to protect children did not come home.

Sources

• Dawn: 2 policemen martyred, 1 injured in attack en route to polio duty in KP's Mohmand
• Geo News: Two cops martyred, one injured in Mohmand polio team attack
• AP via Al Arabiya: Suspected militants open fire and kill two police officers in Pakistan

Watch for arrests in the Mohmand search operation and news of the four abducted polio workers in Tank.

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