Police officer defending polio employees fatally shot in Pakistan’s northwest

• A police officer assigned to guard polio employees in Pakistan’s northwest was fatally shot by gunmen.
• At the very least 11 cops have died this 12 months whereas offering safety for vaccination campaigns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
• The assault occurred within the Wargari space of Lakki Marwat district, the place the gunmen opened hearth on a vaccination crew.

Gunmen fatally shot a police officer assigned to guard polio employees in Pakistan’s northwest, an official mentioned Monday.

At the very least 11 police have died this 12 months whereas on safety obligation for vaccination campaigns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The gunmen fired at a crew working within the Wargari space of Lakki Marwat district, mentioned police official Sajid Khan. One of many attackers additionally died, whereas the remaining assailants fled.

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Nobody instantly claimed accountability for the assault.

Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are recurrently marred by violence. Militants goal vaccination groups and police assigned to guard them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize kids.

A five-day anti-polio marketing campaign began Monday in 9 high-risk districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Well being employees are tasked with administering vaccines to some 3.28 million kids beneath age 5. Greater than 26,000 police are defending the groups.

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Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the one nations the place the unfold of polio has by no means been stopped.

The doubtless deadly, paralyzing illness principally strikes kids beneath age 5 and usually spreads by contaminated water.