PESHAWAR, Oct 7: A police official and a volunteer of an anti-militancy committee were killed and 13 people were injured when a bomb blew up a police van deployed outside a healthcare centre at Badbher to escort a team of polio vaccinators on Monday.

The attack coincided with detection of three fresh polio cases in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The bomb blast caused suspension of the anti-polio campaign in Shaikh Mohammadi Union Council in the suburbs of Peshawar, for an indefinite period.

Peshawar SSP (operations) Najeebur Rehman told reporters that another large bomb placed near a dispensary in the same area had been defused.

He said police were taking extra care in the prevailing situation and the bomb disposal unit was working to clear the area of mines.

Peshawar Deputy Commissioner Syed Zaheerul Islam said the campaign had been suspended only in one union council and not other areas of Peshawar.

A member of the Police Qaumi Razakar (PQR), Hameedullah Khan, told Dawn that he was in another van when the police vehicle was hit by the explosion.

“The people in the van started crying for help. There was a thick cover of dust. We managed to transport the injured in our vehicle to the Lady Reading Hospital,” he said.

Meanwhile, alerted about the presence of another bomb, police found a grenade in the area.

He said many volunteers had stopped reporting for anti-polio duty.

“We are doing this work to protect our young brothers and sisters from the disease but the government should protect the volunteers and absorb them in regular police,” Mr Khan said.

An injured volunteer, Zewar Khan of Akhunabad, said that his 15 colleagues and a police official were going to the Sulemankhel Dispensary near Khyber Agency to escort an anti-polio teams but they could not reach there.

“I am associated with the police as a volunteer and we escaped an attack by suspected militants in Shaikhan village about a week ago. Four of us had only one gun when we came under attack,” he said.

He said the volunteers were not given weapons and those having their own arms were allowed to carry them.

He said that the polio duty had become very dangerous and the government should arm the volunteers and pay them reasonable remuneration.

An official of the bomb disposal unit said that about 4kg of explosives had been used in the explosion while the defused explosives weighed 8kg.

According to Syed Jamil Shah, a spokesman of the hospital, ASI Sajid Hussain of Charsadda was brought dead and Niaz Gul of Badbher, a special police officer (SPO), died in the hospital.

The detection of three more cases took the nationwide tally of polio cases reported this year to 39.

Two of the new cases tested positive for polio at the National Institute of Health in Islamabad belong to Khyber Agency and the third to North Waziristan. The two children of Khyber Agency are 13-month-old Husna Bibi of Spin Kabar area and Uzair (about the same age) of Qambarkhel area of Bara tehsil. The number of polio cases reported in Khyber Agency is now 12.

In North Waziristan, 10-month-old Nasirullah of Shameri village of Mir Ali tehsil brought the number of polio victims in the tribal agency to 11.

Non-vaccination of children because of a ‘ban’ in North Waziristan announced by the Taliban in June last year has put more than 150,000 children at risk.