BAJAUR: A senior official of the polio eradication team was shot dead and a police constable critically injured after an armed assault on their vehicle in Khyber Pakhtu­nkhwa’s Bajaur district on Friday.

Police and rescue officials told Dawn the incident occurred in the Badisia area of Bajaur’s Mamond tehsil morning at about 10:30am.

The targeted vehicle, on its way to Khar from Tarkhoo town, came under heavy fire on Inayat Kallay-Laghari Road, leaving Dr Abdur Rahman and Constable Ilyas Khan injured, SHO of Mamond police station Dilawar Khan told Dawn.

SHO Khan, who visited the scene along with a police team, said that Dr Rahman was a senior officer of the polio programme in Bajaur. Dr Rahman, 45, was going to his workplace, Khar’s district headquarters hospital, in his personal car when he came under attack.

“The attackers successfully fled on a motorcycle,” senior police officer Kashif Zulfiqar told AFP. He called the attack “an act of militancy” and said police are “conducting further investigations”.

Rescue 1122’s Public Relations Officer Ibrahim Khan said emergency medical teams swiftly provided first aid and transported the victims to the Khar district headquarters hospital.

Dr Rahman, who received multiple bullet wounds to the head, was later airlifted to CMH Hospital in Peshawar. However, despite all efforts, he died of injuries some two hours after his admission to the hospital.

Dr Wazir Khan Safi, medical superintendent of Khar’s district hospital and acting district health officer, told Dawn that Dr Rehman’s body was being brought from Peshawar.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2024