Gunmen kill 2 police officers guarding polio workers in southwestern Pakistan

Quetta, Pakistan (AP) — Two police officers assigned to safeguard polio workers were fatally shot by gunmen while on a door-to-door vaccination mission in southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, officials reported. The assault took place in Balochistan province’s Nushki district, just a day following the government's commencement of a seven-day campaign to administer polio vaccines to over 31 million children.

Unharmed, the polio workers were conducting oral vaccine administrations to children inside a residence when the attack occurred, according to local police official Munawar Zaman. No militant group has thus far claimed responsibility for the incident. Separatist militants and the Pakistani Taliban have a history of targeting security personnel and civilians in Balochistan and other regions of Pakistan.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi expressed his condemnation of the attack in a statement issued by the government. Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only two countries where the transmission of the wild poliovirus has not been eradicated, as per the World Health Organization.