Gunmen kill 2 police officers assigned to protect polio workers in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen in two separate attacks Monday shot and killed two police officers assigned to protect polio vaccination teams in northwest Pakistan before fleeing, officials said.

The attacks occurred in two areas of Bajaur, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, police officer Zafar Khan said, as Pakistan launched a new campaign across the country to vaccinate 19 million children against polio in an effort to eradicate the crippling disease.

The attacks happened when the officers were returning home after protecting polio teams, Khan said.

Health workers and police officers assigned to protect them are frequently targeted by militants who falsely claim the vaccination drives are part of a Western conspiracy to sterilize children. More than 200 polio workers and police officers assigned to protect them have been killed in Pakistan since the 1990s, according to officials.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, in a statement, condemned Monday’s attacks and offered condolences to the families of the killed officers.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, though suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban and other local militant groups that have carried out similar attacks in the region and elsewhere. Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan remain the only countries where polio has not been eradicated, according to the World Health Organization.