Police have arrested three suspects after a polio worker was shot dead in Peshawar on March 3.

Talking to The News on Sunday, SSP Haroon Rasheed said that health worker Iqra Hayat had been shot dead by two hired guns.

“Initially, police had suspected that Iqra’s former fiancé was behind the murder. Her family too had nominated the man in the first information report filed after the murder. We arrested him but he denied any involvement in the incident,” the SSP said.

“Using geo-fencing and other techniques, we finally made a breakthrough in the case. We then arrested two men and a woman, who had orchestrated the murder because the woman suspected that Iqra was having an affair with her husband. She offered Rs 0.5 million to the two hired assassins, identified as Jawad and Samiullah, to kill the polio worker. She also provided information to the assassins about the movement of the deceased. The assassins shot Iqra, who was taken to Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar where she succumbed to the wounds,” police said.

“Using geo-fencing and other techniques, we finally made a breakthrough in the case. We arrested two men and a woman, who had orchestrated the murder because she suspected that the victim was having an affair with her husband,” police said.

Iqra had administered polio drops to the children in the area and was returning home when she was shot at by gunmen at Hamza Garhi, Daudzai. Iqra had served as a health worker for several years and was not new to the job. Aimal Khan, a spokesman for the Emergency Operation Centre that manages polio campaigns, said that due to the efforts of workers like Iqra, no polio case had surfaced in the area last year.

“The last polio case was detected was in July 2020. The consistent anti-polio vaccination campaigns have proved successful,” he added.

Attacks on polio workers are often linked to vaccine hesitancy in the province. Polio teams have come under attack in the province over unfounded rumours about the harmful effects of polio vaccine. However, several religious scholars and other opinion leaders have called for vaccinating children against the crippling disease. In December 2021, a policeman was gunned down as armed men fired at polio workers he was escorting in Karak.

The writer is a journalist based in Peshawar and a PhD candidate. He tweets @peoplefriendly