Land mine blast kills 2 polio vaccination workers in Pakistan

PanARMENIAN.Net - A land mine blast killed two polio vaccination workers in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, Jan 31, the latest in a recent wave of violence involving healthcare teams trying to eradicate the disease in the South Asian nation, Los Angeles Times reported.

The blast occurred in Pakistan's Kurram region, one of several remote tribal districts along the border with Afghanistan that have long harbored Islamic militants. Healthcare workers Muzamel Hussain and Akbar Badshah had been administering polio vaccination drops to children in the village of Malikhel and were on their motorcycle when a mine in the road exploded, Kurram officials said.

In recent months, Pakistani Taliban leaders have denounced vaccination drives by United Nations-backed Pakistani healthcare workers as a guise for American spying activity, and have unleashed a campaign of targeted attacks against polio vaccination workers across the country.

At least 11 vaccination workers have been murdered in Pakistan in the last two months. The explosion in Kurram marked the third attack involving polio vaccination teams this week.