Pakistani gunmen assault police guarding polio crew, 1 killed

Gunmen attacked two police offering safety for polio vaccination staff in northwest Pakistan, capturing and killing one and wounding the opposite, officers stated Saturday.
Mohammad Khurasani, spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, often known as the Pakistani Taliban, claimed accountability. It was the primary assault for the reason that TTP on Friday introduced the tip of a one-month cease-fire with the federal government. The truce had been introduced in November amid peace talks between the 2 sides.
The assault happened within the district of Tank in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on the second day of a five-day anti-polio drive to vaccinate 6.5 million youngsters within the province, in line with Aimal Khan, a spokesperson for the vaccination marketing campaign.

Police officer Sajjad Ahmed stated two gunmen using a motorbike opened fireplace on the police crew escorting polio vaccinators within the Chaddarah space killing one constable on the spot and critically wounding a Frontier Constabulary officer however members of the vaccination crew have been unharmed.

Pakistani militants usually goal polio groups and police assigned to guard them claiming the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilise youngsters.
Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan are the one two remaining international locations on this planet the place polio is endemic after Nigeria was final yr declared freed from the virus.