Pakistan polio vaccine campaign at center of bombing that killed 6 police officers

At least six police officers were killed and 27 were injured in northwestern Pakistan on Monday when a roadside bomb exploded near the police van carrying them to provide security to polio vaccination workers.

The attack took place about 10 miles from Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, in the Belot-Farsh Mamund neighborhood in the Bajur district in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, local police official Aziz Ur Rehman told The Media Line.  

“The police officials were assigned to safeguard the devoted polio workers in isolated areas,” Rehman said.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in the world where polio is still endemic. In northern parts of Pakistan, especially close to the Afghanistan border, there is a lack of knowledge about the polio virus, its modes of transmission and its effects, and false religious beliefs are rampant. 

Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are regularly marred by violence, and more than 200 polio vaccination workers and accompanying security officials have been killed in recent years in anti-vaccination attacks. 

Pakistan launched a nationwide polio vaccination campaign on Monday, but in the region struck by the bombing the campaign has now been pushed back indefinitely.

Bilal Faizi, the spokesperson of the provincial Rescue Services 1122, confirmed to The Media Line that most of the injured officers were being treated in the intensive care unit of the district hospital.

“A high-level joint inquiry has begun to track those engaged in this horrific crime," Faizi said.

Israr Khan, a Peshawar-based police spokesperson, said that five officers died on the spot while the sixth succumbed to injuries later in the hospital.

Unofficial sources said that the banned militant groups Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (the Pakistani Taliban) and Islamic State Khorasan Province both claimed responsibility for the attack.

With Pakistan already reeling from security, economic and political crises, such incidents have also heightened security concerns ahead of Pakistan's general elections in February. On Friday, the Pakistani Senate adopted a resolution to postpone the general elections due to a rise in security concerns.

A recent report released by the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies found that “in 2023, Pakistan witnessed 1,524 violence-related fatalities and 1,463 injuries from as many as 789 terror attacks and counter-terror operations. This includes nearly 1,000 fatalities among civilians and security forces personnel.”

The report identified Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan provinces, both of which border Afghanistan, as “the primary centers of violence.”

Distrust comes after CIA fake vax campaign during Bin Laden hunt

Following a fake vaccination drive in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad that the US Central Intelligence Agency staged more than a decade ago to help track down then-al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, a hate campaign against polio vaccine drops was launched in Pakistan's tribal areas.

Some religious leaders in border areas have also spread misinformation that oral vaccine doses contain ingredients prohibited by Islam, such as pork and alcohol.

In 2016, 13 polio vaccine workers were killed in a suicide bombing outside a polio vaccination center in the southwestern city of Quetta. In 2018, a woman and her daughter were murdered in Quetta while they were receiving the polio vaccine.

Despite the security concerns, Pakistan launched its nationwide polio vaccination drive on Monday.

Over 260,000 staff and volunteers were dispersed around the country to vaccinate 44.3 million children under the age of 5 during a week-long campaign.

To boost immunity, children are also supposed to receive extra doses of Vitamin A.

The National Emergency Operations Center recently confirmed that the polio virus was present in sewage samples. 

"Fourteen environmental samples have tested positive for wild poliovirus. … The virus was isolated from sewage samples collected between December 4 and 13 from Peshawar, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Quetta, Kohat, and Islamabad,” the report said.

Israr Ahmed Rajput, a Rawalpindi-based internal security expert, told The Media Line the antipathy to polio vaccinations had begun with the CIA's operation against al-Qaeda.

"The CIA's controversial espionage operation that took place in 2011 resulted in a vehement hate campaign against polio vaccination efforts, posing a significant setback to public health initiatives in the tribal areas of the country,” he said.

“It is a bitter reality that the targeting of polio workers in Pakistan's tribal areas is only due to the fake vaccination program of the American CIA. The revelation ignited anger and suspicion among the Pakistani population, particularly in tribal regions. Local leaders and religious figures took advantage of the mistrust by spreading stories and conspiracy theories that further deter communities from taking part in legitimate polio immunization initiatives.

“At the same time, the terror groups violently oppose vaccination campaigns, arguing they are a cover for foreign intelligence agencies. Pakistan must also develop a well-coordinated system of surveillance in response to the target killings and terrorist attacks on polio workers.” 

Safi Gul, a Peshawar-based independent analyst specializing in militancy and counterterrorism, told The Media Line, “Undoubtedly, the hostile campaign against polio vaccinations has played a role in the multiple acts of terror against polio workers, particularly women. Nevertheless, these attacks have also been attributed to other factors. In the Jani-khel area of Bannu district, for example, tribal elders agreed that if women were involved in the vaccination program, they would not permit them. This is one example of how conservative culture restricts women's freedom of movement.”

Gul said that “especially in Baluchistan, due to the rivalry between different tribes, no member of one tribe can enter into the territories of another, which results in either wrong statistics or such attacks.”

Farzana Shah, a Peshawar-based expert on Afghanistan’s armed groups and editor of defense and strategic affairs magazine The Global Conflict Watch, told The Media Line: “The surge in terrorist attacks and targeting of polio vaccination teams, especially the police protection squads in Pakistan, often attributed to TTP proves that the fears post-Kabul takeover by the Taliban were not misplaced.”

Shah said that “militants targeting polio vaccination teams likely aim to instill fear among the personnel, disrupting immunization efforts and creating chaos and instability among the people. To thwart such attacks targeting polio workers and security officials, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administration has assigned a significant number of security personnel during the polio drive. Furthermore, the administration also deployed paramilitary forces at the district level, particularly in the most militancy-prone areas.”

Shah said that Pakistan had devised a National Emergency Action Plan to confront prevailing security challenges and guarantee the safety of polio workers, which "prioritizes the safety of the committed polio workers while simultaneously emphasizing the eradication of polio.”

Zabiullah Mujahid, the Taliban's chief spokesperson, told The Media Line that “the campaign to eradicate polio across the country has always been carried out pleasingly. No contradiction in polio vaccination was reported from any part of the country.”

Mujahid claimed that the Taliban had succeeded “in making sure that general medical centers all around the country now carry the polio vaccination.” 

Meanwhile, funeral services were held for the slain police officers in Bajur, attended by the victims' family members, police personnel, and many other people, including political and regional elders.