Peshawar: A Pakistani policeman guarding a polio team in the country’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was shot dead on Sunday, a day after two soldiers were attacked in a similar incident killing one of them, police said.
The incident happened in Tank district bordering South Waziristan when constable Nazir shah died after he was shot while he was guarding a polio team.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), known as the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.
“The TTP accepted the responsibility for the attack on polio vaccinators in village Grashada area of Tank district bordering South Waziristan. Police constable Nazir shah died in the firing by the terrorists. One policeman was also injured in the firing,” a senior police officer said.
It was the second attack since the TTP Thursday announced the end of a one-month cease-fire with the government.
Saturday, one soldier was killed and another injured while they were guarding a polio team in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The truce between government and TTP had been announced in November amid peace talks between the two sides.
The TTP has been targeting vaccination drives in Pakistan, claiming it was a Western conspiracy to sterilise children. Pakistan is one of the two polio-endemic countries in the world along with its neighbour Afghanistan.
The Pakistan government has launched a fresh anti-polio vaccination campaign across the province to eradicate the crippling disease.
In 2014, the World Health Organisation had made it mandatory for all people travelling from Pakistan to carry a polio vaccination certificate.
PTI