Pakistani health officials have suspended a nationwide anti-polio campaign following the killings in less than a week of a health worker and two policemen escorting vaccination teams.
Health officials on April 27 confirmed to RFE/RL that the campaign to eradicate the crippling disease has been suspended, despite the recent reporting of two new polio cases in Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world where polio is still endemic.
But militant threats, deep-rooted superstition, and opposition to vaccination by some local clerics have prompted many parents to refuse to have their children vaccinated there.
Authorities say unidentified gunmen targeted polio workers and police assigned to protect them in three separate attacks during the past week.
All of the attacks were in rural regions of Pakistan -- including one attack close to the border with Afghanistan, where polio also remains endemic.