Peshawar, September 15, 2025: Pakistan on Monday reported two new cases of poliovirus, raising the nationwide tally to 26 this year, even as unidentified gunmen abducted three anti-polio vaccinators in the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
Police said the kidnapping occurred in Tank district’s Mulazai area when armed men intercepted a health team and took them into nearby hills. The abducted officials were identified as Abdullah Kundi, Hikmatullah, and District Surveillance Officer Dr. Ihsan.
“A heavy police contingent has been dispatched to launch a search and strike operation to recover the kidnapped officials,” district police spokesman Muhammad Ibrahim told Arab News.
Hours later, Pakistan’s polio program confirmed the virus in two infant girls in North Waziristan and Lakki Marwat. “These new detections bring the total number of cases in 2025 to 26: 18 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, six from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan,” the program said.
The incidents came as KP launched a fresh anti-polio drive targeting 1.29 million children across high-risk districts, including Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, Lower and Upper South Waziristan, and Upper Dir. Polio drops are also being administered in select areas of Bajaur and Swat.
According to officials, 8,928 trained teams have been mobilized, supported by nearly 11,000 security personnel to protect vaccinators.
Despite recent nationwide campaigns reaching over 19 million children, Pakistan’s efforts to eradicate polio remain plagued by parental refusals, misinformation, and repeated militant attacks on vaccination teams.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio remains endemic. The South Asian nation reported 74 cases in 2024, up from six in 2023 and just one in 2021. KP, which borders Afghanistan, has borne the brunt of both poliovirus spread and militant violence since the breakdown of a truce with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in November 2022.
