Three polio workers abducted during vaccination campaign in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Three polio workers have been abducted during an ongoing vaccination campaign in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of north-western Pakistan. According to a police report on Tuesday, unknown gunmen abducted these workers and took them to an unknown location. According to a report by The Hindu, the abducted workers have been identified as Mir Janan, Ikram, and Khanzala.

The administration of Tank district has confirmed the incident. According to the administration, the gunmen picked up these three polio workers from the Sorghar area of Tank district. This incident has raised serious concerns regarding the security of frontline health workers involved in the nationwide polio eradication campaign.

This is part of a series of incidents targeting polio vaccination teams and their abductions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Recently, on November 2, four polio workers were abducted from the Sheikh Attar area of Tank district. Additionally, two vaccinators were abducted from the Azam Varsak area of Lower South Waziristan, who were later released.

As events unfolded, on November 4, polio campaign supervisor Jalil Khan was abducted from the Chapari area of Jamrud in Khyber district. Apart from this, a separate attack occurred in Mohmand district on November 3, in which two policemen deployed for the security of the polio vaccination team were killed by unknown attackers and another policeman was injured.

Such frequent incidents have created an atmosphere of fear among vaccination workers. These attacks and abductions by gunmen are creating obstacles in the goal of a polio-free Pakistan. The police and local administration are conducting searches for the abducted workers.