At least five police officers were martyred and around ten others were injured on Monday in a bomb attack on a police van in Mamund tehsil, Bajaur district.
The police stated that the personnel were going to protect polio vaccination teams. More deaths were expected as a result of the tragedy, they warned.
They stated that the deceased and injured have been rushed to Khar Hospital, where an emergency has been declared.
Senator Sherry Rehman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) denounced the attack on the police personnel assigned to protect the anti-polio squad in Bajaur.
In a post on X, she stated that the PPP stands in sympathy with the families of the five personnel martyred in the blast.
"Terrorists have targeted not only the police but also our children's health. An attack on the anti-polio team's security cannot be accepted under any circumstances since it is directly tied to our children's health," she stated.
Sherry said that the miscreants did not want polio to be completely eradicated from the country. She demanded that the terrorists engaged in the attack be swiftly and harshly punished.
According to AFP, a police officer was slain on December 1 when terrorists attacked a polio vaccination team. The incident took place in Malik Din Khel, a former tribal border region.
"Two gunmen on a motorbike opened fire on policemen guarding a two-member polio vaccination team," DPO Saleem Khan Kulachi told AFP.
Pakistan and adjacent Afghanistan are the only two nations where polio remains prevalent, and vaccination teams are routinely attacked by extremists.