MANSEHRA - Two female polio vaccinators and a policeman were shot dead in broad daylight in Mansehra on Tuesday.
Police said two attackers fired at the workers as they gave polio drops to children in the mountainous Sheikhabad area, 60 kilometres northeast of Mansehra.
“The two-member team was administering polio drops in an Afghan refugee camp and its surrounding areas when two gunmen opened fire on them, killing one lady worker and a policeman and wounding another lady worker and a passer-by,” said police chief Muhammad Ejaz Khan.
He said the second woman polio worker later died of her wounds. Another senior local police official, Akhtar Hayat, confirmed the incident and casualties.
One of the lady vaccinators was identified as Kinza and the slain cop as Mushtaq. Police are yet to ascertain details of another vaccinator. DPO Mansehra has summoned additional contingent of police and directed them to catch the culprits.
Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio remains endemic. Attempts to eradicate it have been badly hit by opposition from militants and attacks on immunisation teams that have now claimed 77 lives since December 2012. Taliban militants claim that the polio vaccination drive is a front for espionage or a conspiracy to sterilize Muslims. Last year the number of polio cases recorded in Pakistan soared to 306, the highest in 14 years.