A police officer deployed to protect an anti-polio vaccination team was killed and four others injured after unidentified armed assailants opened fire in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Hangu district on Monday, officials said.
According to Hangu SDPO Mujahid Hussain, the attack targeted a police van carrying five personnel assigned to provide security to a polio vaccination team in the Chapri Waziran area. All five officers sustained bullet injuries, while one later succumbed to his wounds.
The injured personnel were shifted to a nearby medical facility for treatment, the police official added.
The incident took place on the opening day of Pakistan’s second National Immunisation Days (NIDs) campaign of 2026, aimed at vaccinating more than 45 million children under the age of five in a nationwide drive to eradicate polio.
The campaign is part of Pakistan’s continued efforts to eliminate poliovirus, as the country remains one of the last two in the world where the disease is still endemic, alongside Afghanistan.
Authorities recently confirmed the first polio case of 2026 in a four-year-old child from Sujawal district in Sindh, highlighting ongoing virus circulation in certain high-risk regions.
Health officials and security agencies have long faced threats during vaccination campaigns, with militants repeatedly targeting polio workers and their police escorts in various parts of the country over the past decades.
Despite a significant reduction in cases since the 1990s, officials say the virus has not been fully eradicated and continues to pose a threat in select districts of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The Polio Eradication Initiative has reiterated its commitment to continuing vaccination efforts, while urging parents and communities to ensure full immunisation coverage for children during ongoing campaigns.