DI Khan-
One policeman was killed while another was injured on Tuesday when a polio vaccination team was attacked by unidentified gunman in Dera Ismail Khan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, officials said.
According to police officials, the two policemen were on duty to provide security to the vaccination team in Purwa area of the city when assailants opened fire on them, killing one and injuring other.
The injured policeman was rushed to a hospital where he was reported to be in a critical condition while the dead body was shifted to a morgue for autopsy.
Heath workers remained safe in the attack, officials added.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but previously, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has been repeatedly involved in attacks polio campaign workers.
The resistance by TTP has grown since May 2011 when al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was killed in a US military operation on information provided by Dr. Shakeel Afridi, who ran a fake vaccination campaign to gain access into Bin Laden’s hide out.
The resulting violent resistance has hampered the polio immunisation campaign in Pakistan, which remains one of the three countries where polio is endemic.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 3.5 million Pakistani children missed out on polio vaccination when over a dozen immunization workers were shot dead in various parts of the country.
Recently, WHO has declared Peshawar as the world’s largest reservoir of polio virus in the world.
