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| Polio Team Attacked in Pakistan | |
| (about 5 hours later) | |
| ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Gunmen attacked a vehicle carrying a polio vaccination team in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing the driver and wounding a health care worker, according to police officials. | ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Gunmen attacked a vehicle carrying a polio vaccination team in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing the driver and wounding a health care worker, according to police officials. |
| The attack took place in the restive Khyber tribal region, which straddles the border with Afghanistan and has been the site of a recent offensive by the Pakistani military. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but polio vaccination workers are frequently singled out across Pakistan by Taliban militants, who view the campaign as un-Islamic and the health workers as Western spies. | The attack took place in the restive Khyber tribal region, which straddles the border with Afghanistan and has been the site of a recent offensive by the Pakistani military. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but polio vaccination workers are frequently singled out across Pakistan by Taliban militants, who view the campaign as un-Islamic and the health workers as Western spies. |
| Separately on Saturday, two polio workers and two security guards were reported to have gone missing in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, officials said. It was not immediately clear whether they had come under attack or had merely fallen out of contact in the remote area where they were working. | Separately on Saturday, two polio workers and two security guards were reported to have gone missing in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, officials said. It was not immediately clear whether they had come under attack or had merely fallen out of contact in the remote area where they were working. |
| “There is no proper communication system, which is why we are facing difficulty in tracing them,” a news report quoted a provincial official, Nazir Ahmed Khetran, as saying. | “There is no proper communication system, which is why we are facing difficulty in tracing them,” a news report quoted a provincial official, Nazir Ahmed Khetran, as saying. |
| Hard-line clerics in Pakistan’s most conservative regions have long opposed polio vaccination campaigns, arguing that they are a conspiracy to leave Muslims infertile. | Hard-line clerics in Pakistan’s most conservative regions have long opposed polio vaccination campaigns, arguing that they are a conspiracy to leave Muslims infertile. |
| Resistance to such campaigns increased significantly after the 2011 raid by American forces that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, amid revelations that a polio campaign had been used by the C.I.A. as a cover for an espionage operation. | Resistance to such campaigns increased significantly after the 2011 raid by American forces that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, amid revelations that a polio campaign had been used by the C.I.A. as a cover for an espionage operation. |
| The continuing attacks pose a serious challenge for polio vaccination efforts in Pakistan, one of just three countries where the disease is still endemic. |