PM strongly condemns barbaric act; KP Govt says attack aims at peace talks with TTP
Tariq Saeed Peshawar
After a relative pause another polio team came under attack as two security personnel guarding the polio vaccinators were gunned down in Tank district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday, an incident which the KP government said was aimed at disrupting the peace talks with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
“Two cops protecting a polio vaccination team in Tank district were killed by unidentified armed men on Tuesday”, the officials said adding two gunmen hiding near a tiny water channel started fire on the policeman from a very close range. After firing on two-members of polio vaccination team, the attackers managed to flee from the scene on a motorcycle. The unfortunate incident took place in Tank district’s Kot Azam, close to tribal areas where the military has fought insurgents since 2003.
The martyred Police men have been identified as constables Pir Rehman and Nisar. The security forces kicked off search operation after the terrorist’s attack yet the miscreants remained at large.
In April, Pakistan reported the first case of polio in 15 months. Since then, 14 polio more cases have been reported and all from the same ultra-conservative district where most of the dwellers are opposed to the Polio eradication campaign.
It may be recalled that the Polio teams administering Polio drops, mostly comprise of the female health volunteers and have been under terrorist’s attacks for the last many years in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Dozens of polio workers, mostly female, were killed and many others sustained serious injuries in the assaults against the Polio workers which had not only sent a wave of terror, anxiety and harassment among the Polio staff in the country but had also attracted serious concern of the international community.
While the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has strongly condemned the attack on a polio team in Tank and expressed sympathies with the policemen who lost lives in the line of duty, Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on Information and Broadcasting Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif said that the Tank attack intended to disrupt peace talks with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Reacting to the recent attack on a polio vaccination team on Tuesday Barrister Saif said that anti-TTP groups did not want the peace talks between the banned group and the government.
