Gunmen kill 2 police officers guarding polio workers in Pakistan
Another officer was wounded when militants opened fire on their vehicle near the Afghan border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while four officers were abducted in a separate incident.
Two Pakistani police officers were killed and another wounded on Tuesday when gunmen opened fire on their vehicle while it was escorting a polio vaccination team near the Afghan border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The police official, Ali Rehman Khan, stated that no polio workers were in the vehicle at the time of the attack. No militant group has claimed responsibility for the incident.
In a separate incident, four police officers were abducted on Monday while en route to provide security for a polio vaccination team in Tank district. Rescue efforts are currently underway. This separate attack took place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Tank district.
Pakistan, along with Afghanistan, remains one of the two countries where polio is still endemic. Over the past decade, militants have killed hundreds of police officers and health workers in a campaign against the Pakistani state. Polio, primarily affecting children under five, can lead to lifelong paralysis but is preventable through the oral administration of the vaccine.
Misinformation about the vaccine is prevalent in rural Pakistan, with some claiming it is part of a CIA plot to prevent Muslims from having children. Previous attacks on polio vaccination workers and their escorts have been claimed by the Pakistani Taliban and its associated militant groups.
Written by urgent.news from Free Malaysia Today's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
