A policeman was killed and two others wounded Tuesday by a roadside bomb aimed at polio vaccination workers in Pakistan's restive northwest, officials said. The attack came a day after Islamabad launched a nationwide anti-polio drive, aiming to immunise tens of millions of children in Pakistan - one of only three countries, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, where the crippling disease remains endemic.

A policeman was killed and two others wounded Tuesday by a roadside bomb aimed at polio vaccination workers in Pakistan's restive northwest, officials said. The attack came a day after Islamabad launched a nationwide anti-polio drive, aiming to immunise tens of millions of children in Pakistan - one of only three countries, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, where the crippling disease remains endemic. Opposition to inoculations grew after the CIA organised a fake vaccination drive to help track down Al-Qaeda's former leader Osama Bin Laden in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad. According to Captain Wahid Mehmood, a district police chief, a police van monitoring the polio team was hit on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Dera Ismail Khan. "It was an IED (improvised explosive device) explosion in which one of our policemen got martyred while two others were wounded", Mehmood told reporters. Also Read: Pakistan approaches international community over Kashmir but commits genocide in Balochistan: Baloch leader adaqat Khan, a local police official, confirmed the toll. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the Pakistani Taliban and other militants have targeted polio vaccinators in the past. The nationwide polio vaccination campaign aims to vaccinate some 39 million children. Tuesday's attack follows a devastating year in Pakistan's long fight against polio, with at least 17 cases reported in 2020 so far. In 2019, the number of polio cases jumped to 144 from just 12 in 2018. Even as Pakistan has tried to eliminate polio, a new challenge has emerged in the form of a growing global movement against vaccinations. The phenomenon has attracted adherents worldwide, fuelled by medically baseless claims and proliferated on social media resulting in a resurgence of once-eradicated, highly contagious diseases.

Pakistan policeman killed as blast hits polio vaccine team

A mother and daughter polio vaccination team were gunned down Thursday in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta as they were immunizing children, police said, the latest deaths in the country&#39;s long campaign against the disease.

The duo were killed in a neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city, capital of restive Balochistan, Pakistan&#39;s largest and poorest province.

&quot;Sakina Bibi, 38 and her daughter Rizwana Bibi, 16, were killed by unknown assailants while they were administering polio drops to children,&quot; senior police official Aitzaz Ahmed Goraya said.

He said the pair were on the fourth day of a five-day anti-polio campaign.

&quot;Previously we used to have police personnel providing security to polio workers but we changed it a few months back as it was drawing attention,&quot; Aitzaz said.

&quot;Now we assign polio workers their own neighbourhoods and don&#39;t give them security,&quot; he added.&nbsp;

The incident was confirmed by a senior administration official Amjad Ali Khan.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the incident but Taliban militants have attacked polio workers in the country in the past. More than a hundred people have been killed in such attacks since December 2012.

Islamist opposition to all forms of inoculation grew after the CIA organised a fake vaccination drive to help track down Al-Qaeda&#39;s former leader Osama Bin Laden in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad. He was killed there by US forces in 2011.

Pakistan is one of only two countries in the world where polio, a crippling childhood disease, remains endemic.

Despite the attacks, it hopes to be removed from the list of polio-endemic countries by 2018 by achieving its goal of no fresh cases for a year.

In a separate incident, two policemen were gunned down and a third was critically injured as they were riding a motorbike on their way to the police station in Quetta, Aitzaz said.&nbsp;

The incident occurred in the centre of the city when assailants riding on a motorbike opened fire on the policemen.&nbsp;

The pair were on the fourth day of a five-day anti-polio campaign

A mother and daughter polio vaccination team were gunned down Thursday in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta as they were immunizing children, police said, the latest deaths in the country's long campaign against the disease. The duo were killed in a neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city, capital of restive Balochistan, Pakistan's largest and poorest province. "Sakina Bibi, 38 and her daughter Rizwana Bibi, 16, were killed by unknown assailants while they were administering polio drops to children," senior police official Aitzaz Ahmed Goraya said. He said the pair were on the fourth day of a five-day anti-polio campaign. "Previously we used to have police personnel providing security to polio workers but we changed it a few months back as it was drawing attention," Aitzaz said. "Now we assign polio workers their own neighbourhoods and don't give them security," he added. The incident was confirmed by a senior administration official Amjad Ali Khan. Nobody claimed responsibility for the incident but Taliban militants have attacked polio workers in the country in the past. More than a hundred people have been killed in such attacks since December 2012. Islamist opposition to all forms of inoculation grew after the CIA organised a fake vaccination drive to help track down Al-Qaeda's former leader Osama Bin Laden in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad. He was killed there by US forces in 2011. Pakistan is one of only two countries in the world where polio, a crippling childhood disease, remains endemic. Despite the attacks, it hopes to be removed from the list of polio-endemic countries by 2018 by achieving its goal of no fresh cases for a year. In a separate incident, two policemen were gunned down and a third was critically injured as they were riding a motorbike on their way to the police station in Quetta, Aitzaz said. The incident occurred in the centre of the city when assailants riding on a motorbike opened fire on the policemen.

Mother-daughter polio team shot dead in Pakistan: Police

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