Image showing a dead body. For representational purposes.
Credit: iStock Photo
Peshawar: A police constable assigned to protect an anti-polio team was gunned down by unknown militants in Pakistan's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday, police said.
The incident happened on the first day of anti-polio drive across the country.
Constable Abdur Razik was going to join a team of polio vaccinators in Jamrud Tehsil of Khyber district, bordering Afghanistan, when militants opened fire on him.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where polio remains endemic. The main challenge for Pakistan is to convince reluctant parents, who are influenced by the propaganda of extremists and refuse to allow vaccination.
Extremists regularly attack polio workers as they allege that the vaccine was a conspiracy to sterile Muslims.