- The Balutchistan government promises strict action against the culprits.
- Attack called conspiracy to spread fear, sabotage drive.
- First says that the Polio team has protected the future of children.
Nushki / left: a police officer ensuring security for an anti-political team was martyred while another injured was injured when unidentified attackers opened fire in Nushki, Balutchistan on Tuesday.
The incident prompted the authorities to temporarily suspend the vaccination campaign against the current polio in the district.
The Pakistani Polio program officially started its third national campaign for immunization days (nests) on Monday to make Pakistan a nation without polio.
The one -week campaign aims to immunize more than 45 million children under the age of five. This effort is considered a decisive step in the country’s last push to stop the transmission of poliovirus and carry out an eradication by the end of 2025.
According to Balutchistan government spokesperson Shahid Rind, the attack was an attempt to sabotage a vital national campaign and to be afraid of the public.
“Anti-political conduct is a national obligation, and any attack on this subject is intolerable,” he said in a strongly written declaration, qualifying the assault a plot to derail the campaign and spread panic.
Rind also declared that operations against terrorists would be intensified, promising to translate the culprits into court quickly.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack in strong terms and expressed sincere condolences to the family of the martyr police manager.
President Zardari said the war against polio was not over and reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to eradicate the disease. “We will not rest until the polio is completely eliminated,” he said.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that the attack on a team working to protect the future of children was absolutely unacceptable. “Those who try to derail the polio campaign will be treated firmly,” he warned.
In Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan – the only countries where polio remains endemic – militants have for decades targeted vaccination teams and their safety escorts.
In the past decade, hundreds of police officers and health workers have been killed by activists.
Polio, a highly infectious virus mainly affecting children under the age of five, can lead to life paralysis, but is easily avoided by the oral administration of a few drops of vaccine.
Pakistan recorded an increase in polio cases last year, with 74 infections reported, against only six in 2023. Meanwhile, nine have been reported in 2025 so far.
In April, two surveys staff were martyred in the Kali Teri region of Mastung in Baloutchistan when unidentified attackers opened fire on the security details of a polio team.
In the same month, a police officer also kissed martyrdom while a terrorist was killed in an exchange of fire following an attack on police staff who kept a polio vaccination team in the southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa district district.