QUETTA: Gunmen attacked a vehicle and abducted two polio workers who were on their way home after visiting a health facility in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in Pakistan’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to local police.
The kidnapping happened ahead of a nationwide anti-polio campaign which will begin on April 21 to vaccinate 45 million children.
“Raza Muhammad and Muhammad Asif were kidnapped at gunpoint by unknown persons and taken away,” police said in a statement, which said they had been returning from a training for the upcoming vaccination campaign.
It wasn’t immediately clear who was behind the abductions but authorities have previously blamed militants for such attacks.
Insurgents falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children despite the government and medical experts’ vehement denials.
Pakistan has reported six new cases of polio since January.
According to the World Health Organization, Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan remain the only two countries where the potentially fatal, paralyzing virus has not been eradicated.
Gunmen abduct two polio vaccinators in Pakistan’s Dera Ismail Khan district
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Gunmen abduct two polio vaccinators in Pakistan’s Dera Ismail Khan district

- Kidnapping happened ahead of nationwide anti-polio campaign which will begin on April 21 to vaccinate 45 million children
- Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan remain only two countries where paralyzing polio virus has not been eradicated