Ongoing case · 2010
Ongoing case: this file carries charge-sheet facts only. Anyone charged is presumed innocent unless convicted.
The short answer
Pakistan remains one of two countries where polio is still endemic, with decades of vaccination campaigns hampered by militant attacks on health workers, misinformation, and a fake CIA-run vaccination scheme tied to the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
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Suggest coverage for Polio in PakistanPakistan is one of only two countries in the world, alongside Afghanistan, where poliomyelitis remains endemic. Wild poliovirus case counts have fluctuated significantly over the past decade: 147 cases were recorded in 2019, falling to 84 in 2020 and just 1 in 2021, before rising again to 20 in 2022, 6 in 2023, and 74 in 2024. By December 2025, reported cases for the year had decreased to approximately 30, attributed to intensified nationwide vaccination campaigns targeting more than 45 million children per round.
The country's polio immunization campaign began in 1974 under the WHO's Expanded Programme of Immunization, with formal eradication efforts starting in 1994 through the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme, which now employs up to 339,521 trained polio workers. Despite early CDC and WHO predictions in the 1990s of eradication by 2000, vaccination coverage lagged due to logistical barriers, population being uninformed, and inadequate immunization strategies. International organizations including WHO, UNICEF, the CDC, Rotary International, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation subsequently funded intensive door-to-door campaigns.
A major setback to public trust occurred in 2011, when the CIA employed Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi and local health officials to run a fake vaccination campaign in Abbottabad, aiming to collect DNA samples to confirm Osama bin Laden's location ahead of the raid that killed him. This ruse had lasting consequences: since 2012, at least 70 polio workers have been killed in Pakistan, with many attacks claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, who allege vaccination campaigns are a cover for intelligence gathering. Polio cases rose from 198 in 2011 to 306 in 2014, the highest since 2000.
Militant attacks on vaccination teams have continued, including a January 2016 suicide bombing near a polio center in Balochistan that killed at least 15 people, a November 2022 bombing of a police truck escorting vaccinators in Quetta that killed 3, and a September 2024 shooting that killed a polio worker and a policeman.
Misinformation has also impeded eradication, including claims that vaccines contain pig fat or alcohol, or cause infertility. In April 2019, over 25,000 children were rushed to hospitals amid a panic driven by false rumors that the vaccine causes fainting and vomiting. Vaccine hesitancy persisted into 2025, with over 60,000 documented refusals recorded during the April 2025 campaign, concentrated in Sindh and Balochistan.
Other structural factors cited include poor health infrastructure, government negligence, political unrest in militant-controlled areas such as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, climate conditions that reduce vaccine efficacy, natural disasters such as the 2010 floods, and low parental literacy affecting immunization completion. In response to a 2024 resurgence, the government launched a National Emergency Action Plan (July 2024–June 2025) and additional nationwide vaccination drives, including an October 2024 initiative targeting 45 million children.
Pakistan's polio immunization campaign begins under the WHO's Expanded Programme of Immunization.
Pakistan's formal polio eradication efforts officially begin via the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme.
About 27 million children vaccinated nationwide in a campaign aiming for a polio-free Pakistan by year's end.
Pakistan floods displace 20 million people; WHO reports an upsurge in polio cases, with Pakistan accounting for about 62% of endemic-country polio cases by November.
CIA employs Dr. Shakil Afridi and local health officials to run a fake vaccination campaign in Abbottabad to help confirm Osama bin Laden's location; 198 polio cases reported in Pakistan this year.
Polio cases in Pakistan reach 306, the highest since 2000; Pakistan has the world's highest number of polio cases this year.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government issues arrest warrants for 1,200 parents/guardians refusing vaccination; 512 people arrested and later released after signing undertakings.
Pakistan launches an injectable polio vaccine intended to treat four million children.
A suicide bomber kills at least 15 people, including 13 policemen and one soldier, near a polio center in a town near Quetta, Balochistan.
Over 25,000 children are rushed to hospitals amid mass panic over false rumors that the polio vaccine causes fainting and vomiting.
147 wild poliovirus cases reported in Pakistan for the year.
84 wild poliovirus cases reported.
1 wild poliovirus case reported.
Officials attribute a new outbreak to health workers falsely marking children's fingers to indicate vaccination without administering it.
A suicide bombing of a police truck escorting polio vaccinators in Quetta kills 3 people and injures 27.
20 wild poliovirus cases reported for the year.
6 wild poliovirus cases reported, a low point.
A polio worker and a policeman are killed by a gunman affiliated with Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.
41 wild poliovirus cases reported across 71 districts as of October; Pakistan launches an initiative to vaccinate 45 million children on 28 October.
74 confirmed wild poliovirus type 1 cases reported for the year, primarily in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Sindh.
National Reference Laboratory detects wild poliovirus type 1 in 28 sewage samples from 20 districts between 8 May and 17 June.
Pakistan reports approximately 30 wild poliovirus cases for the year, a decrease attributed to intensified nationwide vaccination campaigns.
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Pakistani doctor employed by the CIA to conduct a fake vaccination campaign in Abbottabad in 2011 to help confirm Osama bin Laden's location; role and awareness of the operation's implications is unresolved per the source.[3]
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Credit: Hamid MirCC BY-SA 3.0SourceSOLVEDListenAbbottabad compound (Waziristan Haveli), Abbottabad, Pakistan · 2011
On May 2, 2011, U.S. Navy SEAL Team Six killed Osama bin Laden, founder of al-Qaeda and orchestrator of the September 11 attacks, during a CIA-led raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Three other people in the compound were also killed, and bin Laden's body was buried at sea.
Credit: Oliver MarkCC BY-SA 4.0SourceSOLVEDListenLiaquat National Bagh, Rawalpindi, Pakistan · 2007
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was killed on 27 December 2007 in Rawalpindi following a shooting and suicide bombing after a political rally, an attack that also killed 23 other people. A UN inquiry found her security had been fatally insufficient and the crime scene mishandled; two police officers were later convicted, five Taliban-linked suspects were acquitted, and Pervez Musharraf was indicted but declared a fugitive before being separately sentenced in absentia on unrelated treason charges.
Credit: Kamran HayatPublic domainSourceSOLVEDListenMultan, Punjab, Pakistan · 2016
Pakistani social media celebrity and feminist activist Qandeel Baloch was drugged and asphyxiated at her parents' home in Multan on 15 July 2016 by her brother, who said he killed her for "bringing disrepute" to the family. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019 but was released by an appeals court in 2022.
SOLVEDListenSector F-7/4, Islamabad, Pakistan · 2021
Noor Mukadam, 27, was tortured, raped, and killed at a residence in Islamabad, Pakistan, in July 2021. Zahir Jaffer was convicted of her murder and sentenced to death, a verdict upheld by Pakistan's Supreme Court in 2025.
Credit: SohaibTahirSTCC BY-SA 3.0SourceSOLVEDListenMall Road, Charing Cross, Lahore, Pakistan · 2017
A suicide bomber killed at least 18 people, including several police officers, and wounded more than 87 at a pharmacists' and chemists' protest on Mall Road in Lahore, Pakistan, on 13 February 2017. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, claimed responsibility.
Credit: From the Imperial Gazetteer of India, Hunter, William Wilson, Sir, (1840-1900), Cotton…Public domainSourceUNSOLVEDListenRawalpindi Division, Punjab Province, British India (present-day Punjab, Pakistan) · 1947
In March 1947, Muslim League-affiliated mobs carried out large-scale massacres, rapes, and forced conversions against Hindus and Sikhs across the Rawalpindi Division of Punjab, killing an estimated 7,000–8,000 people and triggering the mass exodus of 80,000 residents by the end of April.
