Polio team targeted: 11 khasadar officials, child killed in Jamrud blasts

JAMRUD / PESHAWAR: Eleven khasadar officials who were providing security to a polio team were killed in two separate blasts in Jamrud on Saturday. A vehicle of a polio team in the Lashora area of the town was targeted in the first explosion while the vehicle of the line officer of the polio team was reportedly the target of the second attack. A child was also killed in the explosions. Eleven paramilitary troops and one child died after the bombs detonated in the Lashora area of Jamrud Tehsil in Khyber tribal district, 30 kilometres southwest of the city of Peshawar, senior administration official Jahangir Khan told AFP. The troops were protecting a convoy of health workers who were on their way to administer anti-polio drops to children as part of a three-day campaign against polio that started Friday, he said. “A convoy of three vehicles was taking polio workers to administer the drops and the bombs exploded after the first vehicle that was carrying polio workers crossed the spot,” Khan said. He added that two vehicles belonging to the medical team were also damaged in the explosions. Samim Jan, chief of the government-run hospital in Jamrud, confirmed the causalities. “Twelve dead bodies and three injured were brought here, one of the injured is in critical condition,” he told AFP. Jan also said that eight of the injured have been shifted to Hayatabad Medical Complex in Peshawar. Emergency was declared at the complex. Rehman Khan, a senior health official in Khyber tribal district, said the polio campaign has been temporarily suspended in the Jamrud area. “We will resume administering of polio drops when the security situation is better,” he told AFP. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack so far. Polio teams have been the target of various attacks in the country. Militant groups see vaccination campaigns as a cover for espionage there are also long-running rumours about polio drops causing infertility. More than 40 people, including health workers and police guarding the teams which administer polio drops to children, have been killed in Pakistan since December 2012. Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world where polio is still endemic, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria. According to the World Health Organisation, Pakistan recorded 91 cases of polio last year, up from 58 in 2012.