A roadside bomb explosion targeting a police vehicle that was guarding an anti-polio vaccination team has killed at least seven police officers and wounded another 22 in northwestern Pakistan, local officials told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal on January 8.
The Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group claimed responsibility for the blast in the Mamund area of the Bajaur tribal district, one of the seven tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province that borders Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar.
Mamund is a former stronghold of the TTP, which is a separate group from the Afghan Taliban, although the two are close allies.
Regional police spokesman Muhammad Asrar told Radio Mashaal that the team of police personnel were on their way to guard polio workers performing immunizations in the area when their car was hit by a roadside bomb.
Police Officers Assigned To Protect Polio Workers Killed In Roadside Attack In Pakistan
Police spokesman Mohammad Asrar said that 10 of the wounded were in serious condition at Bajaur's Khar Hospital.
Police official Kashif Zulfiquar said that the inoculation campaign has been paused in the area where the attack occurred and that all members of the vaccination teams are safe.
Islamist extremists frequently target polio vaccination teams and the security forces assigned to protect them, falsely asserting that immunization campaigns are Western plots to sterilize Muslim children.
Some parents in the northwest refuse to allow their children to be vaccinated against polio.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in the world where polio has not been completely eradicated.
At least six new polio cases were reported in Pakistan last year, despite the 231-million strong nation's efforts to eradicate the disease, which can cause severe paralysis in children.
After the Afghan Taliban returned to power following the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces from the war-wracked country, many TTP members have reportedly found sanctuaries in Afghanistan, using the country to launch more frequent attacks on Pakistani troops and civilians.