Two policemen were martyred and another injured when unidentified gunmen opened fire on them on Tuesday while they were on their way to join a polio team for security duty in Mohmand district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The attack is a grim reminder of the risks faced by those who provide security for vaccination campaigns in parts of the country, and it comes at a time when a major polio campaign is under way across Pakistan.
Headquarters DSP Liaquat Ali said the attack took place near the Hashim Kor police checkpost in the Dag Tamanzai area of Pindiali tehsil. That location places the incident on the route the policemen were taking to their duty with the polio team. The gunmen, who have not been identified in the reporting, opened fire on the policemen as they travelled to join the team.
The martyred policemen were Constables Zahoor Khan and Arbai Khan. The injured policeman was Sepoy Sabir Khan. Those names, reported by Dawn, give a human dimension to an incident that might otherwise be recorded only as a statistic. Two families have lost a serving policeman, and a third policeman has been injured in the course of duty that was directly linked to protecting a public health campaign.
The attack took place during a sub-national polio vaccination campaign that began across the country on Sunday. The campaign is targeting nearly 24 million children in 97 high-risk districts. That scale underlines both the ambition of the campaign and the logistical challenge involved in reaching millions of children, many of them in districts where security arrangements are a necessary part of the operation.
Polio vaccination campaigns in Pakistan rely heavily on the security provided by police and other personnel. Polio teams move from area to area, often in districts where the security situation requires protection. The policemen attacked on Tuesday were travelling to join such a team, which means their duty was not separate from the campaign but an integral part of making it possible.
On Sunday, Pakistan reported its eighth polio case of the year: a 13-month-old girl from Khyber district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The reporting of a new case on the very day the campaign began is a sobering coincidence. It shows that the virus is still circulating and still reaching young children, and it reinforces the rationale for a campaign targeting nearly 24 million children.
What happens next will include, in the immediate term, the treatment and care of the injured policeman, Sepoy Sabir Khan, and the official response to the attack in Mohmand. It will also include the efforts directed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor towards the safe recovery of the four polio workers reported abducted in Tank district. Beyond those immediate steps, the campaign itself will continue, with teams working across 97 high-risk districts.
The broader question is how security for polio campaigns can be maintained in the face of attacks such as the one in Mohmand. The campaign’s success depends on teams being able to reach children safely, and that in turn depends on the policemen and other security personnel who accompany them. The martyrdom of two constables on their way to such a duty is therefore not only a loss for their families and for the police force, but also a blow to the campaign they were travelling to support.
For the communities in Mohmand and elsewhere, the incident may also affect confidence in the campaign. Health authorities will need to reassure both workers and families that security arrangements remain in place, even as they continue the work of vaccinating millions of children. The coming days will show how the authorities respond, both in terms of security and in terms of support for the families of those killed and injured.
Source: Dawn, 4 November 2026
