WEB DESK
A policeman was martyred in an attack on a polio vaccination team in Balochistan’s Pishin District.
According to the police, the incident took place in the Kali Tarata area of the district on Tuesday. The officer was killed when unidentified men opened fire at the vaccination team.
The officer was identified as Muhammad Hashim. His body has been shifted to DHQ Hospital Pishin for the post-mortem. Polio vaccinators, however, remained unhurt in the attack. The police and the security forces have cordoned off the area and a search operation for the attackers has been initiated.
On Monday, Pakistan launched a week-long anti-polio campaign in 83 districts of four provinces of the country. The children under five years of age will be administered polio drops.
A week-long anti-polio campaign is being carried out in 14 districts of Punjab including Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Mianwali, Khushab, Sialkot, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Layyah, Multan, Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur.
In Sindh, around 6.5 million children under five years of age will be given oral polio vaccine drops during the drive.
In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, a three-day anti-polio campaign will commence in 28 districts.
In Balochistan, 1.7 million children up to the age of five years will be administered anti-polio drops during the campaign.
So far, 20 confirmed cases of polio have been reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) in 2022.
