Islamabad 17 Aug, Islamabad : Gunmen who were not identified shot and killed two police officers in Pakistan stationed to protect medics who administer the vaccine against polio. The incident occurred on the Tuesday in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Tank district as part of a door-to-door vaccination drive, the dpa agency quoted a police official from the local area as saying.
He claimed that the gunmen, who were on a motorcycle were able to flee the scene.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
On Monday the provincial government began the vaccination drive to vaccinate over a million kids as young as of five.
Pakistan was polio-free for nearly a whole year, however fourteen new cases, all coming from the province that is racked with violence and the province of Sindh, have been documented in the last few months.
Pakistan is one of the few countries in the world where new cases of polio persist, even however, the amount of affected children has decreased dramatically compared to the 306 cases in 2014.
Nearby Afghanistan has the same problem, with the UK and US both recently registering the presence of polio in wastewater.
Militants who are a part of Al Qaeda often attack health workers in Pakistan.
Dozens of vaccine handlers as well as security officials were killed by militants in the past.
They accuse health personnel of working as spies and claim that the vaccination against polio is designed to render Muslim children infertile.
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