Policeman escorting polio workers killed in Pakistan

Unidentified gunmen have shot dead a policeman escorting a team of polio workers in northwest Pakistan’s restive Khyber Pakthunkhwa province, police said on Sunday.

The bike-borne gunmen fired at the police constable in the Daudzai area of Peshawar district and fled from the scene.

The policeman was returning home after being with a polio team when he came under fire, police said.

A case has been registered and an investigation is underway.

Polio health workers and law enforcement officials who are tasked with providing security have often been targetted by militants and miscreants.

Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan are the only two remaining countries in the world where polio is endemic after Nigeria was last year declared free of poliovirus.

The Pakistan government suspended the anti-polio drive and post-campaign evaluation in the past following the increasing number of attacks on polio workers in different parts of the country.

Attempts to eradicate the crippling disease have been seriously hampered by deadly targeting of vaccination teams in recent years by militants, who oppose the drives, claiming that the polio drops cause infertility.