PESHAWAR/SWABI, Feb 1: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has directed commissioners and deputy commissioners to adopt necessary arrangements for ensuring foolproof security to anti-polio teams.

According to a statement here on Friday, the Home and Tribal Affairs Department has issued instructions to the officials to take measures in coordination with district police officers to ensure the safety of both the polio teams members and police staff accompanying them during door-to-door anti-polio campaign.

The commissioners and deputy commissioners have further been asked to treat this matter as top priority.

Meanwhile, the Swabi district administration has tightened security for polio vaccinators while the health authorities have been keeping secrecy of the areas where anti-polio campaign is being carried out to avoid any untoward incident, sources said on Friday.

An officer of the district administration told Dawn on condition of anonymity that after the killing of a policeman protecting anti-polio team here on Tuesday, Swabi district had been divided into different zones for providing security to health workers.

“Our strategy has worked so far and the last two days passed peacefully,” said the officer.

Earlier, one policeman would accompany with each polio team, but now two or three policemen would be protecting each team.
“These policemen have been alerted that there is no room for complacency after the recent attack on their colleague,” said the officer.

It has been noted that people are cooperating with policemen accompanying the anti-polio teams. The sources said that the ongoing campaign could take three to four more days to cover the target areas.

Health officers also said that people had been extending them complete cooperation.