Killed in attack on security forces for vaccination campaign in Pakistan After 17 years on death row: US police killers executed

An attack on security forces ahead of a polio vaccination campaign in Pakistan on Wednesday killed at least three people, including the killer, police said. At least 23 others were injured in the attack in the western city of Quetta, Baluchistan province, including 20 police officers, police said on Wednesday. The dead are said to be a police officer, a child and the hitman. The bomb hit a car containing police officers assigned to oversee a polio vaccination campaign.

The Pakistani Taliban (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack. The militant Islamists only declared the end of a ceasefire agreed with the government in May on Monday and called on their fighters to launch attacks across the country. The TTP is an umbrella organization of militant Islamist groups reported to have several thousand fighters.

In the past, extremists in Pakistan have repeatedly attacked vaccination campaigns. Militant Islamists view polio vaccination in part as a Western conspiracy to sterilize children. Pakistan is one of the few countries in the world where there are still new cases of polio. After only one case of polio was diagnosed in Pakistan in 2021, the number has risen again this year. The authorities therefore only started a new vaccination campaign against polio in November.

(yam/sda/dpa)