Policeman guarding polio team shot dead in KP's Bajaur

• Two motorcyclists opened fire, killing policeman on spot.
• Polio campaign in Bajaur started late due to security reasons.
• Campaign continues din all areas except site of incident: police.

PESHAWAR: Gunmen shot dead a police officer guarding a polio vaccination team on Wednesday in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Bajaur district, close to the Afghan border, police said.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where polio is endemic and militants have for decades targeted vaccination teams and their security escorts.

Polio has resurged in Pakistan, with two cases reported so far this year, and at least 74 polio infections last year, compared to six in 2023. 

"Two motorcycle riders opened fire... as a result, the police officer died on the spot, but the polio team remained unharmed," Niaz Muhammad, a police officer in Bajaur district, told AFP.

Bajaur district shares a 52-kilometre border with Afghanistan.

The start of the polio campaign had been delayed in the district for security reasons, after a rise in militant attacks in the area, said Waqas Rafiq, a senior police official.

"Despite the attack, the campaign continues in all areas [of the district] except the site of the incident," he said.

Polio mostly affects children under five and sometimes causes lifelong paralysis but can easily be prevented by the oral administration of a few drops of vaccine.

Over the past decade, hundreds of police officers and health workers have been killed by militants waging an offensive against the Pakistani state.

Pakistan has witnessed a dramatic uptick in attacks, mostly in KP and Balochistan, since the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2021, with Islamabad claiming hostile groups plan their attacks from Afghan soil.