Female polio worker shot dead in Bannu

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Terrorists continue attacking anti-polio teams in all parts of the country, as one more female worker was gunned down in Bannu district of restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), officials said on Monday.

According to local police, the incident took place in the limits of Cantt police station where unidentified gunmen opened fire on the female polio worker, leaving her dead on the spot.

A bullet-riddled dead body of a Lady Health Worker (LHW) was found from Daudzai area of Peshawar on late Monday.

Militant groups such as the Pakistan Taliban oppose immunisation, saying it is a cover for US spying, which is why anti-polio teams across the country have been attacked in almost every province of the country since the last year, with some 56 people killed in attacks on anti-polio teams since December 2012. Seeing the situation, the government has provided better security facilities to the workers.

Pakistan recorded 91 cases of polio last year, up from 58 in 2012, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Violence, and the threat of it have badly hampered a campaign to stamp out polio in Pakistan, which along with Nigeria and Afghanistan are the only countries where the disease remains endemic.

Victims are left dead, paralysed or with withered limbs.