PESHAWAR – A policeman was gunned down on Wednesday while guarding a polio vaccination team in Nowshera district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), police said.
Two armed men opened fire on the officer assigned to protect the team, killing him on the spot. The vaccination workers remained unharmed, according to police.
The attack occurred on the third day of the nationwide anti-polio campaign, which aims to vaccinate 45 million children across Pakistan.
Police official Bilal Khan said a search operation was underway to trace the assailants.
A day earlier, a Levies personnel was killed in a similar attack while guarding a polio team in Anzar Tangay Byakan, Tehsil Matta, KP.
Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only countries where polio remains endemic. Over the past decade, hundreds of health workers and security personnel have lost their lives in attacks on vaccination drives.
The national immunisation campaign runs from October 13 to 19, while in southern KP, it will continue from October 20 to 23.
According to official figures, 29 polio cases have been reported this year, including 18 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the highest among all provinces.
