Gunmen Kidnap Polio Workers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province
Armed men kidnapped multiple polio vaccination workers and killed police officers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during a nationwide campaign to vaccinate 24 million children.
A series of violent attacks targeted polio vaccination teams across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province starting in early November 2026. On November 3, unidentified armed men kidnapped four team members—UCMO Qadeer, Usman, Sameer, and Umair—from Jious village in the Tank district. In a separate incident in Lower South Waziristan, two other workers were abducted and later released in an action allegedly linked to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Violence escalated on November 4 when gunmen in the Mohmand district killed two police officers and injured a third while they were traveling to provide security for a vaccination team. On November 5, assailants kidnapped team supervisor Jalil Khan from Jamrud. These attacks coincide with a nationwide campaign aiming to vaccinate 24 million children under five across 97 districts.
Faisal Karim Kundi, Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, condemned the abductions as contrary to humanity and the national interest. He ordered immediate steps for the recovery of the workers and stated that the government is responsible for providing security to vaccination teams. The surge in violence follows a report from the National Emergency Operations Centre for Polio Eradication that a 13-month-old girl in the Khyber district became the eighth polio case of 2026 on November 1.
