Two police officers killed while guarding polio vaccination team in Balochistan
Gunmen shot dead two police officers assigned to protect polio workers in Balochistan's Nushki district; the vaccination team was unharmed.
Two police officers tasked with protecting polio vaccination workers were shot and killed by gunmen in southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, officials said.
The attack took place in the Nushki district of Balochistan province, according to local police official Munawar Zaman. The vaccination team, which was administering oral polio drops to children inside a house at the time, escaped unhurt.
The shooting occurred a day after authorities began a weeklong door-to-door campaign aimed at immunising more than 31 million children across the country.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the killings.
Security forces and civilians in Balochistan and other parts of Pakistan have previously been targeted by separatist militants and the Pakistani Taliban.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attack in a statement.
Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan are the only two countries where transmission of the wild poliovirus has not been interrupted, according to the World Health Organization.