At least 6 injured in explosion targeting polio workers in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Peshawar: At least six people, including three policemen, were injured in a bomb explosion that targeted a vehicle carrying workers associated with the Pakistan Polio Programme in the country’s restive northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, authorities said on Monday.

The explosion resulted in injuries to three frontline polio workers and three policemen in South Waziristan district’s Wana town. The injured were immediately shifted to a hospital and their condition is stated to be stable.

Police contingents rushed to the explosion site and launched a combing operation to arrest the accused.

Authorities in Pakistan last week reported its first polio case in the capital Islamabad in the last 16 years, a setback to the national efforts aimed at eradicating the crippling virus from the country.

The country came close to achieving zero poliovirus cases in 2021 when only one infection was reported.

So far this year, 12 cases have been reported from Balochistan, three from Sindh, and one from Punjab and Islamabad each.

Separately in Peshawar, the capital of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a suicide vest was thrown by two motorcyclists when they were signalled to stop by police at Jameel Chowk, Ring Road. A bomb disposal squad has been called to defuse the jacket that has seven kilograms of explosives.