On Thursday, the police reported that a firing incident in the Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province resulted in three policemen injured, the incident occurred during the polio vaccine administration campaign being carried out this week in the nation.
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According to Khyber police, the security of polio workers during a door-to-door campaign aimed at administering polio vaccine to children was entrusted to law enforcement personnel; who were subjected to an assault by unidentified assailants in the Khyber district of the province while the polio team was working.
The team in charge of administering the polio vaccine was able to avoid harm during the attack; however, after this event, the initiative to vaccinate children in the affected region has been temporarily suspended.
The police officers who sustained injuries were transported to a medical facility in proximity, while an operation to locate and apprehend the assailants has been initiated in the vicinity.
Until now, no group has claimed being responsible for the attack.
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said it is not the first time that health workers and people trying to give polio vaccinations have been attacked in Pakistan and other countries.
On Monday, with the objective of providing vaccinations to over 3.5 million children under five year, a polio eradication campaign of a duration of five days was implemented in twelve provinces.
According to the recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO), the new instances of polio that have surfaced in Pakistan since January 2021 have been exclusively restricted to seven polio-endemic districts located in the southern region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.