A policeman was killed in an attack on a medical center dealing with poliomyelitis in northwestern Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Militants attacked the sanatorium, which was used in ongoing campaign against polio in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, triggering a shootout that left a policeman dead, local authorities said. Three attackers were also killed in the exchange.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Orakzai, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban.

Local police officer Adnan Khan said the attack happened in the morning as health workers were gathering before going on a door-to-door campaign, along with police accompanying polio teams for their safety.

No polio workers were injured in Tuesday’s attack, but another police officer was injured, Khan added.

Also on Tuesday, militants stormed a medical center in North Waziristan, another former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, snatching weapons from officers and warning medical workers gathered there not to participate in the polio campaign, local police officer Shoaib said. – said Khan.

The attackers then left with the seized weapons, he said, without giving further details.

Militants in Pakistan often targeting police and polio workers during campaigns against polio, claiming that vaccination drives are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.

Pakistan and Afghanistan the only two countries in the world where the spread of polio never stopped. In severe cases, poliomyelitis can cause permanent paralysis and death.

Pakistan on Monday launched another nationwide vaccination drive to vaccinate 45 million children under the age of five after a sharp rise in new cases. This is the third action this year.

This year, Pakistan has reported 41 cases in 71 districts, mainly in southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh provinces, as well as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and eastern Punjab province.

In Afghanistan, local health authorities said Monday that vaccinations had also begun in 16 of the country’s 34 provinces. The campaign will last three days and reach 6.2 million children under the age of 5, according to spokesman Sharafat Zaman.

According to the World Health Organization, there have been 23 confirmed cases in Afghanistan this year.