Two killed in attack on Pakistani polio vaccination team

12/9/2024 17:34

        Gunmen opened fire on a polio vaccination team in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing one of those handing out doses and one policeman escorting him, police said, in an attack later claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.
        
        The attack in the region bordering Afghanistan comes two days after Pakistan launched its latest national campaign to stamp out the virus, which still poses a health threat in the South Asian nation, although mostly eradicated elsewhere.
        
        District police officer Waqas Rafique said, "Unidentified armed men opened fire on polio vaccination team in a subdivision of Bajaur tribal district as they were on the vaccination campaign."
        
        The Pakistani Taliban, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) said in a statement their fighters had killed a police officer accompanying the polio team and injured one other. The statement made no mention of the polio worker or the reason for the attack.
        
        Previously Islamist militant groups in the region have claimed similar attacks on polio teams, falsely portraying the inoculation campaigns as a Western conspiracy to sterilise children.