Gunmen on motorcycles in northwest Pakistan opened fire on police officers escorting a polio expert team, killing two officers on Tuesday. , officials said.
According to Mohammad Imran, a local police officer, none of the polio workers were harmed. The four polio workers and the police escort were all traveling by motorcycle.
The attackers fled the scene and no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the town of Gomal in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan.
The attack came on the second day of his latest polio eradication campaign in the same province of Pakistan. Pakistan has registered 14 new polio cases since April, all from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The epidemic is hitting the Islamic State's efforts to eradicate the disease, which can cause severe paralysis in children.
Anti-Polio in Pakistan The campaign is characterized by violence, as Islamist militants often target polio teams and the police who protect them, and falsely claim that vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to render children sterile.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only polio-endemic countries in the world. He will have only one case reported in Pakistan in 2021, raising hopes that he is one step closer to eradicating polio.
