Orakzai [Pakistan], October 29 : Two police personnel who were on security duty for the polio team died in a terrorist attack in the Upper Orakzai district, ARY News reported on Tuesday.
The terrorists opened fire over a polio team at Dabori Badan Kalay in Upper Orakzai resulting in the death of two policemen on security duty of the polio team, according to police sources.
"Three attackers were also killed in retaliatory firing," a police official told ARY News.
Another incident of firing over a polio vaccination team was reported in Kohat's Darrewal Banda but the policemen as well as the vaccinators were unscathed. The attackers fled from the scene after a counterfire by policemen, as per ARY News.
Amid the alarming rise in polio cases, Pakistan's total tally this year rose to 41 after wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) was detected in a 42-month-old girl from Loralai District in Balochistan, Geo News reported citing The News on Sunday.
Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) stated that the child experienced the onset of paralysis on October 8 and laboratory tests, on Friday, confirmed that she had contracted WPV1.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani government, in its bid to tackle the virus's spread, will start a nationwide anti-polio vaccine campaign on October 28.
The case marked the first confirmed polio case in the Loralai district and highlights a troubling trend with the province emerging as an area of intense polio transmission this year, as reported by Geo News.
So far, the Balochistan province has reported 21 of the 41 cases, with other cases spread across Sindh (12), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (six), and one each in Punjab and Islamabad.
A senior official with the national PEI expressed concern over the extent of WPV1 transmission in the country.
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