A Hangu polio team guard was shot, leaving three policemen injured on Monday while they were protecting a polio vaccination team in the district. The incident highlights the continuing security threats faced by frontline workers and police assigned to Pakistan’s anti-polio campaign.
Local police SHO Mehmood Alam said the firing took place in the Chhapri Wazeeran area of Hangu district. The injured officers were shifted to a hospital for medical treatment soon after the attack.
Police later deployed additional contingents in the area and cordoned off the locality following the incident. The shooting happened as Pakistan continued its second nationwide anti-polio campaign of 2026. The campaign is set to run until April and is being carried out across 169 districts.
The initiative aims to vaccinate more than 45.3 million children. More than 400,000 workers have been deployed for the effort, underlining the scale of the national push to contain the virus.
In February, the National Emergency Operations Centre said the first national anti-polio drive of 2026 had been successfully completed. It added that more than 44.3 million children were administered the polio vaccine during that campaign. Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan remain the only two countries where polio is still endemic. For years, militants have targeted vaccination teams as well as the police personnel assigned to guard them.
That makes security a central part of every anti-polio campaign, especially in sensitive districts where health workers and escorts face repeated threats. The latest firing in Hangu is another reminder of the risks surrounding these public health operations. Even so, the campaign continues as authorities work to reach millions of children nationwide.
The attack in Hangu underscores the difficult conditions under which vaccination teams operate. While the immediate focus remains on the recovery of the injured policemen, the incident also raises fresh concerns about the protection of health workers and their escorts.
As Pakistan pushes ahead with its 2026 anti-polio drive, the safety of field teams will remain critical to the success of the campaign and the wider effort to eliminate the disease.
