Pakistan reports ninth polio case from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

According to the NEOC, the afflicted infant is a seven-month-old male from Bara tehsil in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This new instance marks the third case originating from Khyber district and the seventh overall within Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Highlighting the cross-border transmission crisis, the NEOC disclosed that the poliovirus identified across three separate cases in Khyber district shares direct genetic links with strains circulating in neighbouring Afghanistan, a nation grappling with a severe outbreak comprising 50 cases in 2026, as detailed by the Pakistan-based daily Dawn.

Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only two countries globally where wild poliovirus persists as endemic. Amid this public health crisis, immunisation personnel in Pakistan continue to face grave security threats and targeted violence, particularly concentrated within Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

Demonstrating the hostile environment faced by health workers, a polio vaccination campaign supervisor was abducted by unidentified armed perpetrators from Jamrud in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday amid an ongoing immunisation drive.

District Police Officer (DPO) Waqar Ahmad stated that the armed attackers seized the supervisor, identified as Jalil Khan, and forcibly transferred him to an undisclosed location on Wednesday, as reported by another Pakistani daily, The Express Tribune.

In response to the abduction, local authorities deployed a heavy contingent of law enforcement personnel to the area and established rigorous blockades to trace Khan.

Escalating the violence against security personnel protecting health initiatives, two police officers were killed and another sustained injuries on Tuesday when unidentified assailants opened fire on them while they were en route to reinforce a polio vaccination security detail in the Mohmand district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Headquarters Deputy Superintendent of Police Liaquat Ali confirmed that the assault occurred near the Hashim Kor police checkpoint situated in Pindiali tehsil of Mohmand, according to Dawn.

Compounding the crisis on Monday, four polio workers were abducted by unidentified gunmen following a barrage of gunfire in the Tank district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

As per the details, the four immunisation workers were seized by unidentified armed men in Tank and whisked away to an undisclosed destination, prompting local police to initiate a formal investigation, The Express Tribune reported.

In a separate security breach, two vaccination workers were abducted by armed men in the Azam Warsak locality of the Lower South Waziristan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa before eventually being released.

Assailants affiliated with the proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were allegedly behind the kidnapping of the two immunisation team members, both of whom were subsequently set free. (ANI)