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, particularly in the affected region,” said a senior police official.

Meanwhile, the official funeral prayers for both the victims were offered at the Police Lines ground in Khar simultaneously.

The funeral was attended by officials of the district administration, police personnel, and local elders.

Later, the victims’ bodies were sent to their native towns for burial.

In December last year, two people, including a constable, lost their lives after assailants attacked a polio team in Bajaur.

This year’s first attack on a polio team was recorded in February in Balochistan’s Chaman, where firing by armed terrorists resulted in the martyrdom of a police officer.

Last month, a police constable was martyred and four others were injured in an attack on a law enforcement party en route to provide security for polio teams in KP’s Hangu district.