Aug 1, 2023, 9:00 PM

Gunmen kill 2 Pakistan police guarding polio vaccinators

Gunmen kill 2 Pakistan police guarding polio vaccinators

TEHRAN, Aug. 01 (MNA) – Two policemen were shot dead on Tuesday while guarding a polio vaccination team in southwest Pakistan, officials said.

Two men riding a motorbike opened fire on the officers guarding a two-woman vaccination team working in the Nawa Killi area of Balochistan's provincial capital Quetta, police said, Manila Bulletin. 

The policemen "died on the spot" while both women remained safe inside a house where they were inoculating children, senior police official Adeel Akbar said. 

Local police official Masood Kasi confirmed the incident and said the officers were members of Pakistan's marginalized Shiite Hazara community.

"We are investigating the incident from both the attack on the polio team and any potential sectarian elements involved," Kasi said.

"We have further increased the security of the polio teams and the vaccination campaign is still ongoing," he added.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes just two days after an ISIL suicide bomber killed 54 people at a political gathering in Pakistan's northwest.

Pakistan has reported only one case of polio this year, but 20 were reported last year, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

Efforts to end the disease have also been hampered by conspiracy theories spread by the radical religious right, which claim vaccination programs are part of a Western plot to sterilize Muslims.

SKH/PR

News ID 204074

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