Polio supervisor abducted in Khyber's Jamrud during vaccination drive

A polio campaign team supervisor was abducted by unidentified armed men in Khyber district’s Jamrud area on Wednesday, in the latest attack on polio workers during the seven-day vaccination drive in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, The Express Tribune reported.

The abduction

The supervisor, identified as Jalil Khan, was taken from the Chapri area of Jamrud, District Police Officer (DPO) Waqar Ahmad said. The armed men drove him to an undisclosed location. A heavy police contingent was sent to the area after the incident, the DPO said, and blockades were set up on key routes to recover him. No group has said it was behind the abduction, and the reports we drew on name no suspects.

A week of attacks

Jalil Khan’s abduction follows other incidents since the campaign began on November 2:

• Mohmand: on Tuesday, two policemen were martyred and another was injured when unidentified armed men attacked a polio vaccination team. One attacker was also injured. Our report on the two policemen killed on polio duty in Mohmand has the details.
• Tank: earlier in the week, four polio workers were abducted by armed men after being fired on in the village of Jious, in the Sheikh Attar union council. The gunmen took all four to an undisclosed location.
• Lower South Waziristan: two members of a vaccination team were abducted in the Azam Warsak area, allegedly by men linked to the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Tribune reported, citing sources. Both were later released; see our report on the Tank and Azam Warsak abductions.

The campaign

The special campaign is being held in 97 selected districts from November 2 to 8, according to the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) for Polio Eradication. It aims to give polio drops to nearly 24 million children under five, in step with a campaign in Afghanistan. It came days after the NEOC confirmed a new case in a 13-month-old girl from Bara tehsil in Khyber district, the second case from the district this year and the sixth from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; read our report on that case and the campaign. Jamrud is in the same district.

What is not known

The reports do not say who took Jalil Khan, whether he was targeted because of his role in the campaign, or whether any group has made demands. The police have so far given only the location, the time of the report and the steps taken to recover him. The polio programme has not yet said whether the campaign in Jamrud will continue.

Why it matters

Polio teams in the province have been targeted before, and the pattern this week is clear: police guarding teams are being shot at, and workers are being taken in at least three districts within days. For parents in Khyber, where a child was paralysed only days ago, the danger is double: a case in the district shows that the virus is circulating, and every attack makes it harder for teams to reach homes. The safety of the workers is now the first question. What to watch is whether Jalil Khan is recovered, whether the authorities identify those behind the week’s attacks, and whether the campaign has to be paused or moved in any district before it ends on November 8.

This article draws on reporting by The Express Tribune.