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At least one policeman was killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Orakzai on Tuesday as unidentified gunmen attacked a health office where polio vaccination teams were gathered, an official working at the government body tackling the spread of polio in the province said.
The attack occurred in Upper Orakzai, where around 13 polio team members were present, Mohammad Zeeshan Khan, deputy coordinator of the government body managing polio campaigns, told Reuters
“We are in touch with local authorities and confirm the polio teams are safe,” Khan said, adding two militants were also killed.
“The polio campaign has been suspended in the area,” he said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Militant groups in the region have previously claimed similar attacks on polio teams, falsely portraying the inoculation campaigns as a Western conspiracy to sterilise children.
Although mostly eradicated elsewhere, wiping out polio is still an aim in Pakistan, which has 41 active cases, according to the prime minister’s office. Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world still.
