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KABUL – At least 6 Pakistani police officers were killed and 10 other people injured after a roadside bomb exploded near a van carrying police assigned to protect workers in a polio immunization campaign in north-western Pakistan. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
The bombing happened in the former Pakistani Taliban stronghold of Mamund in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, police official Kashif Zulfiquar said.
He said some of the wounded officers were in a critical condition in hospital.
Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are regularly marred by violence.
Islamic militants often target polio teams and police assigned to protect them, claiming falsely that the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
In a statement, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack, which came hours after authorities launched the first anti-polio campaign of the new year.
The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is a separate group but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and Nato troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.
Many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuaries in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, which also emboldened the TTP to carry out more attacks on security forces.
It has strained Pakistan’s ties with the Taliban government, which insists it does not allow TTP to use its soil to launch attacks in Pakistan.
