Police have arrested four suspects accused of assaulting members of a polio vaccination team in Karachi, according to the report on Saturday.
The incident occurred in Block No. 14 of the Federal B Area. According to Senior Superintendent of Police Central Zeeshan Siddique, a case has been registered against the suspects at Joharabad Police Station.
This latest incident comes amid a series of violent attacks targeting polio workers and their security personnel. On October 10, 2025, a polio worker named Rehmanullah, aged 30, was shot dead in a suspected targeted attack on the Super Highway.
According to Site Superhighway Industrial Area SHO Wilayat Shah, the victim was on his way to Surjani Town on a motorcycle when unidentified gunmen opened fire near Jamia-tu-Rasheed.
He was critically injured and taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead. Rehmanullah was a resident of Quetta Town near Madras Chowk.
Just days later, on October 15, militants killed a police officer assigned to protect polio workers in Nowshera District. The attack occurred on the third day of a nationwide anti-polio drive aimed at vaccinating 45 million children.
“Two armed militants targeted a police officer assigned to protect a polio team,” local police official Bilal Khan told AFP. “He was killed on the spot,” Khan added. The polio team, however, escaped unharmed.
The attack was later claimed by Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan, a local faction linked to the Pakistani Taliban.
A day earlier, on October 14, a Levies constable was shot dead while providing security to a polio team in the Swat district. The constable was guarding outside a house while the team administered vaccines inside when gunmen opened fire.
Pakistan remains one of only two countries in the world, along with Afghanistan, where polio is still endemic. Over the past decade, hundreds of police officers and health workers have been killed in attacks linked to militant opposition to vaccination efforts.
The country reported 74 polio cases last year, up sharply from just six in 2023. So far this year, 29 cases have been recorded, with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reporting the highest number, 18 cases.
Polio is a highly contagious virus that mainly affects children under five and can cause permanent paralysis, though it is preventable with a few oral vaccine drops.
Health officials continue to battle widespread misinformation in rural areas, where false claims, including that the vaccine is a foreign plot to harm Muslims, hinder immunization campaigns.
The latest attack follows last month’s launch of a government-led HPV vaccination campaign for girls, which also faced misinformation and public resistance.