Karachi: Police aborted a militant attack on a polio vaccination team in Pakistan on Tuesday, killing one rebel and arresting another in the port city of Karachi.
Two militants allegedly belonging to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group attempted to attack the polio team, but escorting police retaliated, in the Ahsanabad neighbourhood on the city’s northern outskirts.
“Two persons named Ameer Hamza and Misbah, both from TTP, came to attack polio workers and one of them was injured when the police retaliated,” Muneer Shaikh, the senior police officer told AFP.
The wounded militant, who was identified as Misbah later died in hospital, police officer Khalid Khan said.
None of the police or the polio team was harmed but police arrested both the militants and seized their weapons.
The vaccination was then called off in the area.
Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world where polio is still endemic, but efforts to stamp out the crippling disease have been hit by repeated attacks on health teams.
Officials blame the violence and suspicions about the vaccine for a surge in cases.
According to the World Health Organisation, Pakistan recorded 72 cases of polio this year compared with 58 in 2012.
New Delhi last week announced it would require citizens from Pakistan and other polio-affected nations travelling to India to take a mandatory vaccination for the disease at least six weeks prior to their departure.
