Gunmen kill police officer assigned to protect polio workers in Pakistan’s northwest

PESHAWAR, Pakistan. Gunmen shot dead a police officer assigned to protect polio workers in northwestern Pakistan, an official said Monday.

At least 11 police officers have died this year while carrying out security duties in vaccination campaigns in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The gunmen fired at a team working in the Wargari area of ​​Lakki Marwat district, police officer Sajid Khan said. One of the attackers also died, while the rest of the attackers fled.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants target vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.

A five-day anti-polio campaign began on Monday in nine high-risk districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Health workers are tasked with administering vaccines to some 3.28 million children under the age of five. More than 26,000 police officers protect the teams.

Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only countries where the spread of polio has never been stopped.

He life-threatening and paralyzing disease It mainly affects children under 5 years of age and is usually spread through contaminated water.