Armed assailants kill policeman escorting polio workers in Pakistan

Armed assailants on motorbikes have shot and killed a police officer protecting a group of polio workers in northwestern Pakistan.

The incident took place on Tuesday in Gullu Dheri village located in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where dozens of polio workers were going door to door to vaccinate children.

Following the attack, Danishwar Khan, a local police chief, issued a statement saying “The female vaccinators went inside a house to administer the polio drops. A police guard accompanying the team was waiting outside… Two people came on a motorbike. They opened fire and shot the policeman dead.”

Report says that none of the polio workers escorted by the policeman were injured in the attack. No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

On January 29, a similar attack took place in the village where at least a police officer lost his life.

On January 1, at least seven charity workers were killed by armed attackers in a drive-by shooting in the same region.

In December 2012, nearly 10 polio vaccination workers also lost their lives in separate attacks by gunmen across the country.

Taliban militants in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region ordered a ban on the polio vaccination campaign in June 2012, saying it could be a cover-up for the US espionage in the country.

The Taliban further said they would not allow the UN-sponsored vaccination campaign to be conducted as long as the US continues its assassination drone attacks in the region.

Since 2009, there has been a surge in militant attacks in Pakistan and thousands of people have been killed and displaced by the wave of violence in the country.