Islamabad, Apr 23 (EFE).- Gunmen killed two security personnel from the semi-military Levies force who were guarding a polio vaccination team in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province on Wednesday, an official said.
“Unknown gunmen riding a motorbike opened fire on a security team guarding polio vaccination team in Teeri area of Mastung district killing two Levies force personnel,” Abdul Shakoor, an official at the Levies Control in Mastung, told EFE.
The official disclosed that one of the personnel died on the scene while the other succumbed to his injuries while he was being shifted to a nearby hospital.
He said that one attacker also got injured in retaliatory fire from the forces.
“Gunmen also opened fire on the team which had started a search operation after the incident,” Shakoor said.
However, no one was injured or killed in the second incident of firing by the militants.
The vaccination drive in the area has been suspended, according to the official.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif launched this year’s second nationwide anti-polio campaign, running from Apr. 21-27, and vowed to achieve “roaring success” in the effort.
Sharif strongly condemned the Wednesday attack on the polio team and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.
“Terrorists who harm innocent civilians and security personnel are enemies of humanity and will be punished,” the prime minister said.
The seven-day campaign aims to vaccinate over 45 million children against the disease.
Launched in 1994, Pakistan’s polio program has been hampered by vaccine misinformation and resistance from some religious hard-liners who claim immunization is a foreign conspiracy to sterilize Muslim children or a guise for Western espionage.
Militant groups have repeatedly targeted and killed polio vaccination workers in the Northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
Pakistan recorded a surge in polio cases last year with 74 infections reported, compared to just six in 2023. The country has reported seven polio cases in the year so far.
Afghanistan and Pakistan remain one of the only two countries in the world where polio is still endemic. EFE
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