Suspected militants have shot and killed two police officers assigned to protect polio workers during a door-to-door vaccination campaign in Mohmand, a district in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. A third officer was wounded in the drive-by shooting, which occurred Tuesday as the officers were traveling to guard vaccination teams.
The attackers fled the scene and no group has immediately claimed responsibility. The Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups have previously targeted anti-polio drives and those protecting health workers, falsely alleging that vaccination campaigns are part of a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
In response to the attack, Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi called the incident "intolerable" and offered condolences to the families of the slain officers. The incident occurred as Pakistan began a nationwide campaign on Monday to vaccinate 24 million children against polio. Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only countries where wild poliovirus remains endemic, according to the World Health Organization.
Separately, four polio workers were abducted on Monday in Tank, another district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, provincial Gov. Faisal Karim Kundi stated. He condemned the abductions and urged authorities to secure the workers' safe release.