Two police officers protecting polio workers in Pakistan shot dead

In Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, gunmen targeted a police vehicle escorting a polio vaccination team on Tuesday, resulting in the deaths of two officers and injuries to a third, according to a police official. The militants fired upon the officers' vehicle as it traversed near the Afghan border in Mohmand district. However, no healthcare workers were present in the patrol car at the time of the attack.

No specific militant group has claimed responsibility for the assault, which occurred in a region grappling with rising militancy, believed to originate from Afghanistan. The Taliban government in Afghanistan has denied involvement in the incident.

Separately, four police officers were abducted on Monday while en route to provide security for a polio vaccination team in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Tank district. Rescue efforts are currently underway.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two nations where polio remains endemic. Despite being a highly infectious disease primarily affecting children under five and easily preventable with a few drops of vaccine, polio has claimed hundreds of police officers and health workers over the past decade due to militant attacks. Misinformation about the vaccine is rampant in rural Pakistan, with false claims suggesting it is part of a CIA plot to prevent Muslims from having children. Militant groups linked to the Pakistani Taliban have previously orchestrated such attacks.