Gunmen kill police officer assigned to protect polio workers in southwestern Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen shot and killed a police officer assigned to protect polio workers in southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday before fleeing the scene, police and officials said.

The attack occurred in Noshki, a district in Balochistan province, local police official Mohammad Hassan said, adding that the polio workers escaped unharmed in the attack.

The female health workers were administering oral polio vaccine drops to children inside a house when the assailants opened fire on the officer, Abdul Waheed, who died on the way to the hospital, Hassan said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assault, but suspicion is likely to fall on separatist groups and Pakistani Taliban that have stepped up attacks on security forces and civilians in recent months.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi in separate statements denounced the assault and vowed stern action against those behind the attack, which came a day after Pakistan launched the nationwide campaign to vaccinate 45 million children from polio.

Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan remain the only two countries where the spread of the wild polio virus hasn’t been stopped, according to the World Health Organization. There are ongoing outbreaks of polio linked to the oral vaccine in 10 other countries, mostly in Africa.

Since January, Pakistan has reported 10 polio cases from various parts of the country despite the launch of immunization drives. Last year, the South Asian country witnessed a surge in polio cases, which jumped to 74, though it reported only one polio case in 2021.

Since the 1990s, more than 200 polio workers and the police assigned to protect them have been killed in attacks.