Two polio workers kidnapped in Dera Ismail Khan

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Two polio workers were kidnapped by unknown armed men in the Kulachi area of Dera Ismail Khan (DI Khan), ARY News reported on Tuesday.

According to police, the incident occurred when gunmen opened fire on a flying coach heading to Kulachi. The assailants stopped the coach, forcibly offloaded two passengers, and took them away.

The polio workers were returning after attending a training session for the National Emergency Polio Campaign held in DI Khan city.

Those abducted have been identified as Muhammad Asif, polio vaccination in-charge for Madi area, and Raaz Muhammad Akakhel, in-charge of Kulachi.

Following the incident, police and law enforcement agencies launched a search operation and cordoned off the area in an effort to recover the kidnapped workers.

Meanwhile, a five-day polio eradication campaign is set to be launched in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from April 21, ARY News reported.

The campaign aims at administering polio drops to over 6 million children across the province.

According to the provincial health department on Tuesday, more than 800,000 children in the capital city of Peshawar will receive the polio vaccine.

For the purpose, over 30,000 teams have been formed to carry out the campaign, while 50,000 police personnel will be deployed to ensure security during the drive.

Health officials confirmed that one case of polio has been reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa so far this year, underscoring the importance of continued vaccination efforts.

It is worth mentioning here that the final sub-national polio campaign in Pakistan for the year 2024 did not reach its intended target and a total of 1,122,537 children remained unvaccinated.

The campaign primarily aimed to vaccinate 36,360,037 children, but only 35,712,922 children were successfully vaccinated which indicates that 98 per cent of the vaccination target was achieved, the sources said.

They added 739,201 children were not available for vaccination during the polio campaign in Pakistan while 71,330 parents refused to allow their children to receive the vaccine.

The sources said that in total, the sub-national campaign left 302,006 children unvaccinated.