Armed attacker injured after firing on police during anti-polio drive in Nowshera

While the incident is not believed to be an act of terrorism, further investigation is underway.

A police officer has once again been targeted while protecting a polio team in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Fortunately, both the polio team and the police officers remained unharmed, and the armed attacker was injured in the retaliatory firing by the police.

The incident took place during an anti-polio campaign in the Kalan Khandar area of Nowshera, where a police officer on duty with the polio team was attacked. The officer returned fire and injured the suspect, identified as Ijaz, a resident of Khandar in Nowshera. While the incident is not believed to be an act of terrorism, further investigation is underway.

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The anti-polio campaign in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa began on April 14 and will continue until April 18. Commissioner Peshawar Division Muhammad Zubair inaugurated the campaign by administering polio drops to children.

The campaign aims to administer polio shots to over 1.3 lakh children under the age of five in all districts of Peshawar, Nowshera, Charsadda, District Mohmand, and District Khyber. More than 3,900 mobile teams have been formed for the five-day campaign, and 5,529 police personnel have been deployed to ensure the teams' security.

It is worth noting that Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where polio remains endemic. Since last April, 20 new cases of polio have been reported in Pakistan, all in the northwestern regions of the country, where parents often refuse to vaccinate their children.