• Police officers in Bajaur announce boycott of polio campaign in protest
• Three security men martyred in separate attacks in Bajaur and South Waziristan
BAJAUR / SOUTH WAZIRISTAN: Six people, including three security personnel, a polio worker and two labourers, lost their lives and 12 others were injured in three separate incidents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur and South Waziristan districts on Wednesday.
In Bajaur’s Salarzai tehsil, a police officer and a polio worker were shot dead when unknown assailants attacked a polio vaccination team. A second incident in Bajaur’s Mamund tehsil claimed the life of a security official in a roadside blast.
In Lower South Waziristan, gunfire in the Angoor Adda area left a paramilitary soldier and two labourers dead.
The attack on the polio team occurred around midday in the mountainous Mala Said Banda area of Salarzai tehsil on the third day of an ongoing anti-polio campaign. Police and Rescue 1122 officials told Dawn that the team was on foot, administering vaccines to children, when gunmen opened fire, killing a police constable escorting the team and a polio worker on the spot.
Riaz Ahmad Khan, a spokesman for Rescue1122, told Dawn that the victims were identified as Constable Luqman Khan, 33, from Haji Lawang area of Khar tehsil, and polio worker Abu Huraira, 25, from Tali village in Salarzai.
He said their bodies were taken to the District Headquarters Hospital in Khar for formalities, and both were laid to rest in their native areas following funeral prayers on Wednesday evening.
In response to the killing of their colleague, police officers in Bajaur announced a boycott of the ongoing anti-polio campaign. The announcement was made in a video clip by scores of policemen late on Wednesday evening.
The 50-second clip, seen by Dawn, shows several policemen gathered at the police line in Khar, announcing their decision to boycott the vaccination drive in protest.
The officers also declared their intention to hold a protest meeting at the police line in Khar on Thursday (today) morning at 9am, urging all personnel to attend. They demanded the immediate arrest of those responsible for Luqman Khan’s death.
District Police Officer (DPO) Waqas Rafique told reporters that police teams had been dispatched to search for the attackers, who reportedly fled the scene on motorcycles. An investigation was underway, but no group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attack, paying tribute to the martyred officer and polio worker. He described the incident as a cowardly attack on those safeguarding the future of the country’s children and stressed that such assailants deserved no leniency.
Roadside bomb in Bajaur
In a Bajaur incident, a security official was martyred and four others were injured when their vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device (IED).
Official sources said the explosion occurred in Nimat Khan Kallay at around 11am. The injured soldiers were identified as Naik Waheed, Lance Naik Khan Zeb, Sepoy Gul Jan and Sepoy Mustaqim.
The ISPR did not immediately issue a statement.
Gunfire in South Waziristan
In Lower South Waziristan, an exchange of fire at an FC checkpoint in the Zayooba forest area near the Angoor Adda border left a paramilitary soldier and two labourers dead and eight others injured.
Security sources said crossfire between security forces and unidentified gunmen continued for hours. The incident, which occurred in the Birmal tehsil, marked the third attack in Lower South Waziristan in four days, following a remote-controlled bomb blast near Kari Kot Bazaar and an attack on a police van in Rustam Bazaar, Wana.
The injured were taken to District Headquarters Hospital, Wana.
Deputy Commissioner Nasir Khan and District Health Officer Inayatur Rehman visited the hospital.
Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2024
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