Police officer guarding polio team shot dead in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Peshawar, Oct 15 (PTI) A police officer, who was guarding an anti-polio vaccination team, was gunned down Wednesday by unidentified assailants in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, officials said.

The anti-polio vaccination team was targeted in the Kahai village of Nizampur in Nowshera district, police said.

This is the second such incident in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the last 24 hours.

The 35-year-old police officer was on duty with the polio vaccination team when he was attacked.

Following the incident, police cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to apprehend the assailants, who managed to flee the scene.

In a similar attack, a security official guarding a polio vaccination team was killed by unidentified gunmen in the Arkot area of the Swat district on Tuesday.

Attacks on polio vaccination teams and their security personnel have been a persistent challenge in Pakistan, particularly in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Militant groups often oppose the vaccination drives, spreading misinformation that the vaccine is a Western conspiracy.

Pakistan is one of the last two countries in the world, besides Afghanistan, where polio remains endemic.

Despite global efforts to eradicate the virus, challenges such as safety issues, vaccine hesitancy, and misinformation remain in eliminating the virus. PTI AYZ SCY SCY