The gunmen shot at a police officer shot at a polio vaccination team on Wednesday in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bajaur district, police said.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in which polyomyelitis is endemic and militants have done so for decades aimed at vaccination equipment and their safety escorts.
The polio has resurfaced in Pakistan, with two cases reported so far this year, and at least 73 polyomyelitis infections last year, compared to six in 2023.
“Two motorcyclists opened fire … As a result, the police officer died on the spot, but the polio team remained unharmed,” Muhammad, a police officer in the District of Bajaur, told Niaz. AFP.
The Bajaur district shares a 52 -kilometer border with Afghanistan.
The beginning of the polyomyelitis campaign had been delayed in the district for security reasons, after an increase in militant attacks in the area, said Waqas Rafiq, a senior police officer.
“Despite the attack, the campaign continues in all areas [of the district] Except the site of the incident, ”he said.
The polio mainly affects children under five and sometimes causes paralysis for life, but can be easily avoided by oral administration of a few drops of vaccine.
During the last decade, hundreds of police and health workers have been killed in the country by militants.
In the past, the fire brand clergy falsely claimed that the vaccine contained pork or alcohol, which prohibits it from the consumption of Muslims.
A false vaccination campaign organized by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States (CIA) in Pakistan in 2011 to track Osama Bin Laden aggravated distrust.
