Ayaz Gul
VOA News
January 8, 2024
ISLAMABAD — Authorities in northwestern Pakistan said Monday that at least six police officers were killed and nearly two dozen injured when a roadside bomb struck their truck in a remote region bordering Afghanistan.
The officers were traveling to Bajaur, a militancy-hit border district, to escort anti-polio workers on the first day of a weeklong national immunization drive. Witnesses reported that the powerful blast destroyed the police vehicle.
Rescue workers expected the death toll to increase, saying several officers among the injured were rushed to local hospitals in “critical condition.” The attack prompted local authorities to suspend the polio immunization campaign in the area.
The anti-state Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing. The group, commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, actively targets security forces in areas near and on the Afghan border.
Polio Drive
Health officials said that during the immunization campaign launched Monday, anti-polio teams would go door to door across Pakistan’s 159 districts to administer vaccine drops to more than 44 million children under 5.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last two countries in which the highly infectious polio virus still paralyzes children. However, the cases in both countries significantly declined in 2023, with six reported in each.
With a population of about 241 million, Pakistan came close to eradicating polio in 2021, when it reported only one case of paralysis from the virus. However, the country saw a spike in 2022, with 20 confirmed cases of infection.
The World Health Organization said last month that political instability, insecurity in some districts, and vaccination boycotts continue to hinder anti-polio efforts, particularly in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where Bajaur is located.
The province had four of the six polio cases the country reported in 2023.
The WHO has cautioned that polio vaccination programs in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which also reported six cases last year, continue to miss many children, posing a significant risk to gains made against the crippling disease.
Ariana: Hassan Kazemi Qomi, Iran’s Ambassador and Special Representative to Afghanistan, stated in a meeting with the Deputy Political Chief of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) that Iran does not support opponents of the current government in Kabul. The meeting between Iran’s ambassador and Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, the Deputy Political Chief of the Taliban, took place on Monday night. The Iranian ambassador reiterated that his country does not support the opponents of the Islamic Emirate but is making efforts for Afghanistan to be part of constructive cooperation. 
Khaama: Research from an institute shows that unemployment and family debt have gone up in many areas of the country in the last two years under the Taliban government. According to the findings of this center, the unemployment rate among men has increased to 31 per cent and among women to 8 percent in Afghanistan. Still, 15 per cent of the interviewees have stated that they have been forced to sell their household belongings due to poverty and unemployment. 
Ariana: One of the few remaining Sikhs in Afghanistan, Manjit Singh Lamba, has called on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) to help return their houses and other properties that were taken from them over the years. Lamba, who is head of the Afghan Council of Hindus and Sikhs, said the majority of his community fled the country after a spate of deadly bombings against them, and after the political developments two years ago. 
Khaama: Turkish media reported on Saturday, January 4th, that 24 individuals from Afghanistan who intended to enter Turkey were detained by Turkish police in Ağrı. According to reports, these individuals were detained by the Turkish police at the exact moment they were trying to enter Turkey using a motor vehicle from the Iran-Turkey border. 