FOR decades, Pakistan has vowed to eradicate polio. Billions have been spent on logistics and awareness drives. Yet the virus remains endemic. Among the factors contributing to its spread is the state’s failure to change a narrative that casts polio vaccinators and those guarding them as objects of suspicion. A day after the abduction of four polio workers in KP’s Tank district, unidentified gunmen killed two policemen while another was injured in Mohmand on Tuesday. They were on their way to guard a polio team in the ongoing vaccination drive in 97 high-risk areas. Such unfortunate incidents show that even basic protection is a tall order. From countering anti-vaccination propaganda and delivering the drops to the provision of airtight security, the fight against polio entails many challenges.

The irony that policemen themselves need protection is not lost on anyone. The government must revise its security arrangements to reduce the risk faced by vaccinators as well as those guarding them. Indeed, the all too frequent attacks on polio teams disrupt the programme itself, creating spaces where the infection continues to attack vulnerable children. A polio-free Pakistan is hard to achieve until the perpetrators of such attacks face justice so that others are deterred from following in their footsteps. It is high time the state took note of the prevailing grim circumstances that are keeping Pakistan from ending polio. It must ensure that strong intelligence and security measures are in place to prevent assaults, especially in the country’s high-risk districts. Community buy-in is equally important. Community elders must condemn such attacks and amplify the need to vaccinate children. We cannot watch our front-line workers morph into statistics. No matter how many more billions are poured into the campaign against this crippling illness, a polio-free Pakistan will elude us for as long as vaccination efforts are stymied by violence.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2026