QUETTA - Gunmen on Wednesday killed a policeman guarding a polio vaccination team in Quetta’s Pashtunabad area, police said, the latest blow to efforts to wipe out the crippling virus.
According to police, the two attackers on a motorbike opened fire at a basic health unit in Quetta due to which a constable, Zainullah, guarding the centre, was killed.
The slain cop was on duty with an anti-polio team. A 12 year old boy was also injured in the shooting incident. The body and the wounded were shifted to Civil Hospital Quetta.
The attackers managed to escape from the scene. Police have initiated investigation of the incident.
Senior police official Aitzaz Goraya, however, told a foreign news agency that the policeman, who was guarding a four-member polio vaccination team, was shot as he came out of a mosque after saying prayers during the lunch break. “The policeman succumbed to his wounds on his way to hospital,” he said.
The vaccination drive remained unaffected by the shooting, he added.
The city police chief Shafqat Cheema confirmed the incident and casualty.
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 claimed 69 lives since December 2012.
The militants claim that the polio vaccination drive is a front for espionage or a conspiracy to sterilise Muslims.
Meanwhile, the anti-polio drive continues for the third day in Quetta in which polio drops will be given to more than two lakh children under age five on Wednesday. According to authorities, the four-day anti-polio campaign is being carried out in 22 high risk zones including the areas of Pashtun Abad, Eastern by-pass, Aagbarg, Ahmed Khan Zai, Baleli, Kharotabad, Kuchlak, Kotwal, Huda and Shadezai.
As per details, 299,946 children will be administered polio drops during the campaign for which 616 teams have been arranged.