Cop killed in attack on polio team in DI Khan

PESHAWAR: A policeman was killed and two others were wounded on Tuesday by a roadside bomb aimed at polio vaccination workers in Dera Ismail Khan, officials said.

The attack came a day after Islamabad launched a nationwide anti-polio drive, aiming to immunise tens of millions of children in the country.

According to Captain Wahid Mehmood, a district police chief, a police van monitoring the polio team was hit on the outskirts of Dera Ismail Khan. “It was an IED (improvised explosive device) explosion in which one of our policemen got martyred while two others were wounded,” Mehmood told AFP.

Sadaqat Khan, a local police official, confirmed the toll. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but militants have targeted polio vaccinators in the past. The nationwide polio vaccination campaign aims to vaccinate some 39 million children.