PESHAWAR: The Pakistani Taleban claimed the killing of a police officer as he travelled Monday to guard polio vaccinators on the first day of a nationwide immunization effort after a year of rising cases. The officer was travelling to guard polio vaccinators in the area of Jamrud town in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when he was killed, local police official Zarmat Khan told AFP.
Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only countries where polio is endemic and militants have for decades targeted vaccination teams and their security escorts. Pakistan reported at least 73 polio infections in , compared to just six cases in The vaccination campaign which started on Monday is the first of the year and is due to last a week.
Polio can easily be prevented by the oral administration of a few drops of vaccine, but scores of vaccination workers and their escorts have been killed over the years. In the past, clerics falsely claimed that the vaccine contained pork or alcohol, declaring it forbidden for Muslims.
In more recent years the attacks have focused on vulnerable police escorts accompanying the vaccinators as they go door-to-door. Last year, dozens of Pakistani policemen who accompany medical teams on campaigns went on strike after a string of militant attacks targeting them. Pakistan has witnessed rising militant attacks since the Taleban returned to power in neighboring Afghanistan. More than 1, people were killed in - the deadliest year in almost a decade - according to the Center for Research and Security Studies, an Islamabad-based analysis group.
In November, at least seven people - including five children - were killed in a bombing targeting police gathered to guard vaccinators near a school in southwestern Balochistan province.
