Polio programme official, cop injured in firing on vehicle in Bajaur

A polio programme official and a policeman were injured on Friday after unidentified assailants opened fire on a vehicle in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur district.

Station House Officer (SHO) of Mamond Police Station Dilawar Khan told Dawn.com that unknown persons opened fire on Dr Abdul Rehman’s vehicle when he was coming back from the District Headquarters Hospital Khar in the Tarkhoo area of Mamond Tehsil.

The SHO said that the doctor was coordinator of the polio immunisation programme in Bajaur.

According to Rescue 1122’s Media Coordinator Ibraheem Khan, the teams provided medical aid to the injured persons and shifted them to District Headquarters Hospitals in critical condition.

Last week, two people were injured when a bomb planted on the roadside hit a vehicle in the Bajaur tribal district.

At the start of January, at least seven policemen on polio duty were killed and more than 20 were injured in the bomb attack on a police vehicle in the Billoot area of Mamond tehsil.

So far, 109 people have been killed in polio-related incidents since 2012, according to a report, which puts the number of injuries suffered by policemen and polio workers at 162 during this period.

It said that a total of 13 people were kidnapped during vaccination drives. The total number of killed and injured remained 284, including 166 policemen, 87 health workers and 31 civilians. They included 255 men and 29 women.