Pakistan’s North West bomb explosion, close to the Afghan border, on Monday left five police officers serving as polio B vaccination guards dead and over twenty injured. This was the latest in a string of strikes by Islamist militants ahead of the national elections on February 8.
The terrorist group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, also known as TTP, took credit for the deadly bombing. The organization, also referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, actively attacks law enforcement in regions close to and along the Afghan border.
According to police official Kashif Zulfiquar, the attack took place near Mamund, a former bastion of the Pakistani Taliban in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which borders Afghanistan.
He claimed that, some of the injured officers were in critical condition at a government hospital.
Pak Militants target Polio Drive
Attacking a polio drive in Pakistan on Monday, Islamist terrorists in the country frequently attack polio vaccination teams because they think the program is being used by the West to spy on Muslims and render them infertile.
For years, the TTP has been fighting the state, aiming to topple the current administration and install a strict form of Islamic law in its stead.
Since they terminated a ceasefire with the government last year, the militants have increased the intensity of their attacks.
According to officials, it will continue on in other regions of the nation.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two nations in the world where polio is still widespread. At least six new cases of polio were found in the nation last year, nearly all of them were in the northwest, where parents frequently refuse to vaccinate their children.
The nation’s attempts to eradicate the illness, which may leave children severely paralyzed, have been hampered by the epidemic.
The country announced a single incidence in 2021, giving rise to optimism that the disease was almost eradicated there. That’s when further instances started to show up in spite of anti-polio campaigns.
Pak election and ties with the Taliban
The incident on Monday, which occurred only hours after the government began the first anti-polio campaign of the year, was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.
The Afghan Taliban, sometimes referred to as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, took control of the country in August 2021 as the United States and NATO forces were drawing to an end their 20-year battle. The TTP are a distinct organization, but they are close allies of the Afghan Taliban.
The deadliest number of soldiers to have died in a single incident in years was at least 23, which occurred last month when a six-man suicide squad crashed an explosive-laden truck into a military barracks in northwest region of the nation.
A number of politicians have called for a postponement of the elections in the northwest, and political analysts have expressed concern.
Since the Taliban took power, the TTP has been able to establish sanctuaries for many of its leaders and fighters, which has given them more confidence to strike security troops.
The Taliban administration in Pakistan, which maintains that it forbids TTP from using its territory to undertake operations inside Pakistan, has been strained as a result.
For years, the TTP has been fighting the state, aiming to topple the current administration and install a strict form of Islamic law in its stead.
Since they terminated a ceasefire with the government last year, the militants have increased the intensity of their attacks.