Bajaur blast: PM Kakar vows to continue anti-polio mission

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Prime Minister (PM) Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Wednesday expressed the resolve that anti-polio mission will effectively continue till complete eradication of virus, ARY News reported.

The statement came after five policemen were martyred while 27 people injured in a blast near a police van carrying personnel for escorting polio vaccinators in Mamond tehsil.

The truck carrying cops from the police line for deploying them to perform duty with vaccinators on the first day of the anti-polio campaign was hit by a roadside improvised explosive device (IED) in the Billoot area, the police said.

The polio campaign in the area was suspended due to the blast while rescue teams in Mohmand and Lower Dir districts were put on alert. The banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack.

Chairing a federal cabinet meeting today, the interim prime minister said that the State would never forget the bereaved families of Shuhada, who sacrificed their lives for the country’s bright future.

PM Kakar reiterated that terrorists cannot defeat the resolve of 240 million people of Pakistan, vowing that the anti-polio mission will effectively continue till complete eradication of polio virus from the country.

The Cabinet, paying glowing tributes to the Shuhada of Bajaur blast, strongly condemned the attack on police personnel. It also offered fateha for the departed souls.

Meanwhile, the cabinet – on the recommendation of the Federal Public Service Commission – also approved regularization of 227 teachers working on daily basis in Islamabad schools.

Besides, it approved reconstitution of federal cabinet’s committee on enforced disappearances. The committee is being reconstituted in the wake of resignation of Caretaker Interior Minister Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti, who was earlier heading the team. Now the Minister for Law and Justice will lead the committee.