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The attack occurred in Noshki, a district in Balochistan
province, local police official Mohammad Hassan said, adding
that the polio workers escaped unharmed in the attack.
The female health workers were administering oral polio vaccine
drops to children inside a house when the assailants opened fire
on the police officer, Abdul Waheed, who died on the way to the
hospital, Hassan said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assault, but
suspicion is likely to fall on separatist groups and Pakistani
Taliban that have stepped up attacks on security forces and
civilians in recent months.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi
in separate statements denounced the assault and vowed stern
action against those behind the attack, which came a day after
Pakistan launched the nationwide campaign to vaccinate 45
million children from polio.
Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan remain the only two
countries where the spread of the wild polio virus hasn’t been
stopped, according to the World Health Organization. There are
ongoing outbreaks of polio linked to the oral vaccine in 10
other countries, mostly in Africa.
Since January, Pakistan has reported 10 polio cases from various
parts of the country despite the launch of immunization drives.
Last year, the South Asian country witnessed a surge in polio
cases, which jumped to 74, though it reported only one polio
case in 2021.
Since the 1990s, more than 200 polio workers and the police
assigned to protect them have been killed in attacks.
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