Pakistan officer killed guarding polio vaccination team: police

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Militants shot dead a Pakistan policeman who was guarding a polio vaccination team on Tuesday, police said, the latest casualty in the country’s long campaign against the disease.

“Two militants attacked a policeman guarding a polio vaccination team. The policeman died at the scene. A police team later chased down and killed two attackers and their local facilitator,” said Malik Sikandar Khan, a senior police official in Orakzai, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where the attack happened.

Another police offcial, Naveed Ullah Khan, confirmed the details.

“Two health workers were inside the home during the attack and remained safe,” he told AFP.

Orakzai town is a part of the former tribal border region that was a haven for Taliban militants around a decade ago before a sweeping military campaign rooted them out.

Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan are the only countries where polio remains endemic and vaccination teams are frequently targeted by militants waging a campaign against security forces.

-AFP