Gunmen kill 2 police officers guarding polio workers in southwestern Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen shot and killed two police officers assigned to protect polio workers during a door-to-door vaccination campaign in southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, officials said.

The attack in Balochistan province’s Nushki district came a day after the government launched a weeklong campaign to vaccinate more than 31 million children.

The polio workers, who were administering oral vaccine drops to children inside a home, were unharmed, local police official Munawar Zaman said

No group has immediately claimed responsibility.

Separatist militants and the Pakistani Taliban have previously attacked security forces and civilians in Balochistan and elsewhere in Pakistan.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attack in a statement. Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan remain the only countries where transmission of wild poliovirus has not been interrupted, according to the World Health Organization.

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