PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Suspected militants riding a motorcycle opened fire and killed two police officers assigned to protect polio workers during a door‑to‑door vaccination campaign on Tuesday in northwestern Pakistan, officials said.
The drive‑by shooting in Mohmand district, part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, also wounded a third officer. The police officers were en route to a nearby village to guard vaccination teams when they were attacked, said police officer Ayaz Khan.
The attackers fled the scene, and no group immediately claimed responsibility for the assault.
The Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups regularly target anti‑polio campaigns and the police protecting health workers, falsely alleging that vaccination drives are part of a Western plot to sterilize children.
In Islamabad, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi called the attack “intolerable,” extended condolences to the families of the slain officers, and noted that they had been working toward a healthier future for the nation.
In a separate incident, suspected militants abducted four polio workers the previous day in Tank district, also in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to a statement from provincial Governor Faisal Karim Kundi. He condemned the kidnappings and urged authorities to take immediate action to ensure the workers’ safe release.
Pakistan launched a nationwide campaign on Monday to vaccinate 24 million children against polio as part of its effort to eradicate the disease. Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan remain the only countries where wild poliovirus is endemic, according to the World Health Organization.
