February 3, 2025
By Iqra Manzoor
LAHORE
The first day of a crucial polio vaccination campaign in Jamrud, Khyber District, was marred by violence on Monday, February 3rd, when a police officer protecting a vaccination team was shot and killed. The attack threatens to disrupt the campaign and underscores the dangers faced by health workers. The incident cast a pall on the campaign itself which is meant to be carried out across all the districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
Police officer, Abdul Khalid, was on his way to ensure the polio team on ground had security, when he was gunned down by unidentified suspects in the Ghundi area near Sakhi Pul. However police has not backed down from providing security to the polio vaccination campaign.
Pakistan’s Dismal Polio Situation
In a world where polio has been eradictaed, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where the disease continues to thrive, as noted by a report by the World Population Review.
In 2022, the country reported 17 cases of the wild poliovirus (WPV) over the first eight months – a decline from 84 total cases in 2020. However, data from the Pakistan Polio Eradication Website reveals that 73 polio cases were reported nationwide in 2024, with the first case of 2025 already detected in Balochistan.
To add to the issue, attacks on polio workers and their securty escorts surged during 2024 as highlighted in that year’s Pakistan Security Report, released by the Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS). At least 13 incidents took place which resulted in 13 fatalities and 10 injuries. This was an increase from the 10 attacks that killed five and injured 11 in 2023.
Obstacles
Pakistan’s efforts to eliminate polio are hampered by major obstacles. These include a high rate of vaccination refusal due to misinformation and conservative beliefs, as well as suspicious attitudes toward healthcare workers as a result of fake vaccination campaigns especially those launched during the Musharraf regime to identify militants.
As it stands, vaccination coverage is particularly low in settlements near and along the Pak-Afghan border.
A study in Peshawar found that nearly 80 percent of the respondents refused to vaccinate their children, citing religious concerns that the ‘vaccine contained ingredients forbidden in Islam’. The lack of awareness regarding polio and its consequences has been a persistent issue for the government and its polio eradication program.
Moreover, polio vaccinators found themselves the target of terrorist outfits since after the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) used a fake Hepatitis-B vaccination campaign to locate Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad. The fake campaign led to widespread mistrust, with many believing that vaccination efforts were a cover for espionage. This mistrust was further fueled by the local media portrayal of Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani doctor allegedly hired by the CIA, as a traitor.
In 2014, in response to the growing violence against polio workers, the White House announced that the CIA would no longer use vaccination programs as a cover for espionage. However, vaccinations remained banned in areas controlled by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), exacerbating existing skepticism towards international public health efforts as well as setting back polio eradication efforts.
Rukhsana Anwar, President of the National Programme of Health Employees Federation informed Voicepk that “Such incidents happen because of the misconceptions among the masses that the vaccine is a western agenda and is merely there for seeking more aid.”
She also affirmed that healthcare workers, especially in KP and Baluchistan, face hostility from the general public.
“A lack of awareness campaigns on social media channels is one big reason why people’s attitudes are worsening,” she said.
Meanwhile a change in attacks has now been noticed.
Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq, the prime minister’s advisor for polio eradication and the chairperson of National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC) spoke to Voicepk on the issue.
“It is not the first time that a security personnel or our law enforcement agencies, who are on duty, have been targeted, while ensuring children receive their vaccinations,” she said. “We do not yet know the exact reason of Monday’s incident, but the reasons of such attacks on polio teams have been evolving over time and have differed from area to area. Back then, it was polio healthcare workers who were being targeted. Today the officials providing security to these polio healthcare workers are the ones under threat.”
Ayesha Raza also said that the government and the district administration was working on this issue and was trying to resolve it as soon as possible. Because there are security operations being carried out in different areas of KP at present, it is important to ensure the security of the healthcare workers and polio teams first, before looking into the challenges, which are different when it comes to the security strategy.