Ghaffar Shah, Pakistani Police Inspector, has confirmed the death of seven policemen providing security to polio workers in Pakistan.
He said on Wednesday in Islamabad that gunmen on motorbikes attacked and killed the police officers in two separate incidents in the port city of Karachi.
“Four policemen were killed in one incident and three in the other.
“The attacks took place within a short interval, but no polio worker was hurt in the attacks,’’ Shah said.
Rana Safdar, Coordinator of the National Emergency Operation Cell for Polio Eradication, said that the four-day polio vaccination drive was launched on Monday in some areas of Pakistan to give polio drops to more than 7.4 million children, including 2.4 million in Karachi.
He said in total, the government had deployed more than 15,000 security personnel with the polio teams.
Safdar said that the Islamic fundamentalists considered the polio vaccine to be a conspiracy to sterilize Muslims and had killed nearly 100 vaccinators and security personnel since 2012. (dpa/NAN)