Mohmand polio team attack: 2 policemen guarding vaccinators shot dead
Gunmen on a motorcycle killed two policemen and wounded a third in Mohmand during a drive for 24 million children. What happened and what comes next.
Two policemen assigned to protect polio vaccination teams were shot dead and a third was wounded in Mohmand district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday, 3 November. Gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on their police vehicle as it headed to a village near the Afghan border where vaccinators were working.
No vaccination staff were in the car and the health workers were not hurt, police official Ali Rehman Khan said. The drive in the area was halted for a while after the attack.
What happened in Mohmand
The officers were part of the security escort for the door-to-door campaign, which started on Sunday. Police official Shakeel Khan confirmed that at least two policemen were killed and another was wounded. No group has claimed the attack so far.
President Asif Ali Zardari called the shooting “extremely regrettable and condemnable” in a post on X. “Police personnel deployed to protect polio teams are performing a national duty; their sacrifices will not be forgotten,” he wrote.
A second day of bad news for the campaign
The attack came a day after another incident in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. On Monday, four people on polio duty went missing in Tank district, and a search is under way. Media reports differ on whether they were police guards or health workers, and officials have not yet given their names.
Why this campaign matters
The current round is a sub-national drive that aims to give drops to nearly 24 million children in 97 high-risk districts across Pakistan. The Health Ministry says it is running at the same time as a campaign in Afghanistan, the only other country where wild poliovirus still spreads, with cross-border coordination.
The timing is tense. On Sunday, health authorities confirmed Pakistan’s eighth polio case of 2026, a 13-month-old girl from Khyber district. Six of this year’s cases are from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two from Sindh. Pakistan recorded 31 cases last year, so 2026 is running far lower, but each missed child keeps the virus alive.
Who attacks polio teams, and why
Polio workers and their police guards have been targeted in Pakistan for more than a decade. Similar attacks in the past have been claimed by the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and other armed groups, who falsely claim vaccination teams are part of a Western plot to sterilise children. Health officials say thousands of children miss their drops each round because of violence in border districts.
What to watch next: whether the Mohmand drive resumes on Wednesday with extra security, any claim of responsibility, and news of the four people missing in Tank.
