Islamabad: A female member of an anti-polio vaccination team was killed and another injured in a gun attack Tuesday in a village in the suburbs of Peshawar, capital of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakthunkhwa province, police said.
According to reports the World Health Organisation has temporarily suspended anti-polio vaccination in the affected area.
Police said security forces have taken into custody 14 suspects following the attack in Kaga Wala village in Badber area on the outskirts of Peshawar.
President Asif Ali Zardari strongly condemned the firing on the polio vaccination team and said such cowardly acts of the militants and extremists cannot deter the strong resolve of the government to eradicate the crippling disease from the country.
The government will not let militants deprive children of basic health care, the president said in a statement and directed authorities to provide foolproof security to vaccination teams.
Peshawar administration official Habibullah Arif said the vaccination drive was continuing in other areas of Peshawar but reports said no teams were seen working in the outskirts of the provincial capital after the firing incident.
The polio team was not accompanied by any police guards and the assailants easily escaped from the scene, though security forces later cordoned off the site and an investigation was underway, reports said.
Anti-polio vaccination teams have been attacked in some parts of the country in the past, causing casualties and disrupting the immunisation drive.
