KOHAT: A policeman escorting a polio vaccination team was martyred in an attack in Khawasi Banda area of Jarma near the Indus Highway on Tuesday, the second such incident in four months here.

Constable Hamid Khan was escorting a two-member polio team that remained unhurt in the incident. No militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Kohat Division’s Commi­ss­ioner Javed Marwat called a meeting of police officials in his office and directed them to make efforts to bring the culprits to justice.

SP Investigations Syed Inayat Ali Shah told Dawn that 13 police search teams were patrolling the area to trace the killers, but so far no clue had been found about them.

The incident occurred around 10am when the team was going door-to-door to administer polio drops to children. The police officer expressed the hope that the attackers would be arrested soon, adding that headway had been made in the murder case of a police guard in September 2021.

Earlier on September 20, 2021, constable Syed Sajid Hussain had been killed in Thall Behzadi area of Kohat city on the third day of a five-day polio campaign in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The two armed motorcyclists could be seen in the CCTV footage as they had no masks on their faces.

In recent months, two policemen each had been martyred in Mardan, Peshawar, Tank, Kohat and another one in Dera Ismail Khan, and at least one official was martyred in a deadly attack in Karak. Two lady health workers had been murdered in Swabi in 2020. In the meantime, security of polio teams had been further tightened after the incident.

Later, the funeral for the martyred policeman, followed by a salute of honour, was held at the police lines.

Chairman of district development committee and MPA Ziaullah Bangash, DIG of Kohat division Tahir Ayub, Commissioner of Kohat division Javed Marwat, Deputy Commissioner Roshan Mehsud, DPO Muhammad Suleman, SP Investigations Inayat Ali Shah and other police officers attended the funeral.

A case was registered by the Counter-Terrorism Department of police under the Terrorism Act.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2022