PESHAWAR: A constable of the Frontier Reserve Police (FRP) deployed for a vaccination campaign, ‘Sehat ka insaf’, was killed and another injured in a bomb attack on Charsadda Road on Sunday. Another policeman was injured in an attack in Charkhakhel.
According to Khazana police, the explosion took place after a police van had dropped two policemen at a place in Peshawar.
An official said the van which was the target of the attack escaped because it was equipped with a signal jammer.
He said the policemen had been brought from different districts for special duty.
According to Peshawar SSP (Operations) Najeebur Rehman, an improvised explosive device (IED) placed in a graveyard along the road was detonated by remote control. Experts of the bomb disposal unit said the bomb weighed about 2kg.
Head Constable Bakht Naseeb of Swat was killed and Akbar Hussain of Dir was injured.
The body was sent to Swat for burial.
The SSP said the situation in the city was under control, but the bomb was detonated at about 7am, before the place had been checked.
In another incident, police constable Sarfraz Khan was injured when gunmen attacked a rider squad of Bala Mani police on Charkhakhel Road.
Strict security measures were taken for the campaign launched by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and use of motorcycles had been banned for the day.
Police checked suspected people and vehicles on the entry and exit points and also cordoned off the areas bordering the tribal region.
According to traffic police, a number of motorcycles were impounded for violation of Section 144. “We checked registration and driving licences and also restricted movement of motorcycles,” an official said.
According to AFP, more than 40 health workers and police personnel providing security to the teams administering anti-polio drops to children have been killed in incidents of violence in the country since December 2012.
The ongoing campaign, which started early this month, will continue until April. It sees vaccinators go door-to-door every Sunday across Peshawar to administer drops to children for various diseases, including polio, tuberculosis, tetanus, whooping cough, measles and hepatitis.
According to the World Health Organisation, Pakistan recorded 91 cases of polio last year, up from 58 in 2012.
It warned that Peshawar was the world’s “largest reservoir” of polio.