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Gunmen kill polio worker in Pakistan

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Press Trust of India Islamabad
Militants today killed a polio vaccination team member in a residential area of Faisalabad city in Pakistan's Punjab province, where workers were immunising children on the second day of an anti-polio drive.

The incident occurred in People's Colony of the city during the anti-polio drive to administer polio drops to the children under five years of age.

Mohammad Sarfaraz, 40, was a schoolteacher working as a volunteer in the campaign, a senior police officer said.

Gunmen on a motorcycle fired six shots at Sarfaraz, who was shifted to District Headquarters Hospital in the city but succumbed to his injuries, the officer said.
 

The attackers fled after attack.

Sarfaraz was without any police escort at the time of the attack as Punjab is considered a safe region for polio vaccination team workers.

Outlawed militant group Jundullah claimed responsibility for the attack.

Ahmed Marwat, who claims to be the spokesman of Jundullah, said polio workers would always be on the group's hit-list throughout Pakistan and that it would continue carrying out attacks on them, the Dawn reported.

The attack came a day after two policemen going to escort a polio vaccination team were killed in Buner area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

Taliban militant claimed responsibility for that attack.

Attempts to stamp polio out have been badly hit by opposition from militants and attacks on immunisation teams that have claimed 67 lives since December 2012.

Anti-polio drive faces massive resistance from the Taliban, which considers the vaccines a conspiracy to sterile Muslims. The Taliban militants regularly attack polio workers and their police escorts to discourage immunisation campaigns.

Pakistan, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, are the only three countries in the world where polio remains endemic.

The WHO in May imposed travel restrictions on people travelling from Pakistan to other countries.

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First Published: Dec 09 2014 | 4:06 PM IST

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