Two policemen deployed with polio teams martyred in KP's Bajaur

BAJAUR: At least two policemen, deployed with polio vaccination teams, were martyred in firing by unidentified assailants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur district on Monday. The attacks were carried out on the first day of a four-day anti-polio campaign across KP. In the first incident, Bajaur police spokesperson Israr Khan told Dawn that a 35-year-old martyred cop was returning home when the assailants, carrying rifles, opened fire on him. Separately, Salarzai Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Jamal Shah told reporters that the martyred cop, Constable Sayed Aziz, sustained multiple bullet wounds and died on the way to the hospital. Soon after the incident, a team from the Salarzai police station reached the site of the incident and began tracing the attackers, who had fled the scene, he said. The DSP said an investigation had been launched to identify the attackers. Meanwhile, the Bajaur police spokesperson said that the second incident also happened in Salarzai Tehsil on Monday afternoon, about two hours after the killing of Constable Sayed Aziz in the Dag Qala area. He told Dawn that police constable Sayed Qadar Shah, who was escorting a polio team, was also returning home after duty when unidentified attackers ambushed him with automatic rifles in the Tabai area. The official added that the 45-year-old cop was critically wounded in the ambush and was shifted to the district headquarters hospital for treatment. However, he said that the policeman had succumbed to his injuries. No group has claimed responsibility for the incident like the first until the filing of this report. While the motive behind the attack is not clear, cops deputed for polio vaccination teams’ security have been targeted several times in the past. “The murder of the two policemen by unidentified armed assailants in the same Salarzai tehsil while they were escorting polio teams has also prompted the local police to further tighten security for vaccination teams across the district, particu