Two Pakistani policemen escorting a polio vaccination team were killed on Tuesday in the Balochistan province after unknown assailants opened fire at them.

The attack occurred in Quetta’s Nawa Killi area on the first day of a week-long campaign to vaccinate approximately 2.6 million infants under the age of five in the province.

The members of the polio vaccination team escaped unharmed but the two policemen were killed when unknown gunmen fired on them.

“The polio vaccination team were unhurt, but the armed men came on motorcycles and opened fire when the team was knocking at the door of a house in the neighbourhood,” the Station House Officer, Asif Marwat, said confirming the incident.

He added that the polio campaign in Nawa Killi and its surrounding areas had been suspended.

Balochistan chief minister Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo and foreign minister Bilawal Zardari condemned the incident, asserting that terrorists and extremists would not be able to stop a campaign seeking to safeguard the health of children in Pakistan.

“The negative propaganda against the polio campaign and the malicious intentions of the anti-state elements will be thwarted,” Bizenjo said, calling the perpetrators to be brought under the law.

Polio vaccine campaigns have been hit by terrorist attacks in many parts of the country, notably in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Even in Karachi, polio workers and the policemen escorting them have been attacked. Many clerics and Islamist terror groups have accused the polio teams of working under a western agenda.

Bill passed

The National Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill making changes in the 100-year-old law to award up to 3 years in prison for disclosing the identity of members of intelligence agencies or sources.