12 dead after bomb attack on Pakistani polio team

A roadside bomb has killed 12 people and injured 11 in a village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Police-guarded vehicles carrying polio workers were driving through the village when the bomb went off and killed 11 paramilitary soldiers protecting the polio team, and a child.

Jahangir Khan, senior administration official, told the news agency, AFP: “A convoy of three vehicles was taking polio workers who were on their way to administer anti-polio drops and the bomb exploded after the first vehicle that was carrying polio workers crossed the spot.”

Samim Jan, chief of the hospital in Jamroud, confirmed the casualties. “Twelve dead bodies and three injured were brought here, one of the injured is in a critical condition,” he said.

Polio remains a deadly endemic in Pakistan, which can kill or paralyse within hours.

Pro-Taliban militants have ordered a ban on the polio vaccination campaign with fears the campaign is a masquerade to secretly sterilise children or infect them with HIV.

Rehman Khan, a senior health official in Kyber told AFP that the polio drops would be on temporary hold. “We will resume the administering of polio drops when the security situation is better,” he told AFP.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Vanessa Smart