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Gunmen shot dead a Pakistani police officer guarding a polio vaccination team on Tuesday, police said, the latest casualty in the country’s long-running anti-polio campaign.
“Two militants attacked a police officer who was guarding a polio vaccination team. The officer died on the spot. A police team later tracked down the two attackers and a local facilitator and killed them. ” said Malik Sikandar Khan, a senior police officer in Orakzai city. The attack occurred in Khyber Pakhtankhwa province.
Another police official, Naveed Ullah Khan, also confirmed the details.
“Two medical workers were inside the house during the attack and were unharmed,” he told AFP.
The town of Orakzai is part of a former tribal border area that was a haven for Taliban insurgents until a major military operation eradicated them about a decade ago.
The only countries where polio remains endemic are Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, where vaccination teams are often targeted by extremists conducting operations against security forces.
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