Peshawar: At least one polio worker was killed and another injured today when Taliban gunmen attacked the team in Pakistan's volatile northwest region, a day after a similar attack on medical workers that claimed two lives.
The gunmen fired at polio workers as they administered polio drops to children in the Kamangara area of Nawagai tehsil near the Pak-Afghan border, said Assistant Political Agent (APA) Nawagai, Fayaz Ali Sherpao.
One polio worker died on the spot while another was injured, Sherpao added. The injured worker was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.
The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) took responsibility of the killing.
The attack on the polio team today comes just a day after a polio team in Mansehra was attacked. One woman health worker and a policeman were killed in yesterday's attack.
The polio team in Mansehra was vaccinating children on the second day of a three-day anti-polio drive in the district when they were attacked.
Pakistan is one of only three countries where the crippling disease remains endemic.
Islamist militants consider anti-polio vaccines as a Western conspiracy to sterilise Muslims. Scores of health workers in Pakistan have been killed in the last two years as a result.
Last year, the number of polio cases recorded in Pakistan soared to 306, the highest in 14 years.
