A polio campaign team supervisor was kidnapped by unidentified assailants from Jamrud in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday, during the ongoing vaccination campaign.
The supervisor has been identified as Jalil Khan. He was taken by armed assailants to an undisclosed place, according to the account given by the district police officer.
District Police Officer Waqar Ahmad said armed assailants took him to an undisclosed place. The police officer’s account is the source for the details of the abduction and for the response that followed.
A heavy contingent of police was deployed in the area, and blockades were set up to find him. The deployment and the blockades form part of the effort to locate the abducted supervisor and to secure his release.
The abduction took place during the ongoing vaccination campaign, which is under way across the country. The supervisor was working as part of that campaign when he was taken in Jamrud.
This incident is a separate security incident from the polio case confirmed in Khyber district, and it should not be merged with that case. The case concerns a child who tested positive for the virus, while this incident concerns the abduction of a campaign worker.
Earlier on Monday, four polio workers were kidnapped by unidentified assailants after being subjected to gunfire in the Tank district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. That incident, two days before the Jamrud abduction, involved four workers who were taken after gunfire.
In a separate incident, two polio workers were abducted by gunmen in the Azam Warsak area in Lower South Waziristan. That abduction, in a different area, adds a third incident to the series of attacks on polio workers reported in the province.
Police have launched a probe into the incidents. The investigation covers the abductions reported in Jamrud, Tank and Azam Warsak, and it is under way as the search for the abducted workers continues.
The three incidents together describe a pattern of targeting of polio workers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the vaccination campaign. The Jamrud abduction involved a team supervisor, the Tank incident involved four workers, and the Azam Warsak incident involved two workers.
The timing of the incidents, during the vaccination drive, places them at a moment when polio teams are working in communities across the province. The campaign, which runs from 2 to 8 November and targets around twenty-four million children under five, depends on the work of supervisors and vaccinators in the field.
The abduction in Jamrud on Wednesday followed the Tank incident on Monday, in which four workers were kidnapped after gunfire. The sequence shows incidents occurring within days of each other, in different districts of the province.
The police response in Jamrud, with a heavy contingent deployed and blockades set up, reflects the seriousness with which the abduction is being treated. The search for Jalil Khan is the immediate priority for the police in the area.
The details of the Azam Warsak incident, in which two workers were abducted by gunmen, are reported separately from the Tank and Jamrud incidents. The location, in Lower South Waziristan, is distinct from the other two, and the incident is described as a separate one.
No further details about the whereabouts of the abducted workers have been reported in the account available. The police probe is under way, and the search in Jamrud continues with the contingent deployed and blockades in place.
The incidents highlight the security risks faced by polio workers in the province. Supervisors and vaccinators working on the campaign are operating in areas where they have been targeted, as shown by the three incidents reported in the space of a few days.
The vaccination campaign continues, and the abductions have taken place against the background of that campaign. The work of the teams, the security of the workers, and the police response are the elements of the story as reported.
Source: The Express Tribune
