Two polio cops shot dead in Lower Dir.

TIMERGARA -- Two policemen were killed when unknown gunmen opened firing at a polio vaccination team near Lal Qala Markhani Bridge in Lower Dir on Wednesday, the latest in a series of attacks targeting eradication efforts in one of only three countries in the world where the disease remains endemic.

District Police Officer (DPO) Dir Lower Arif Shahbaz told this scribe by phone that two police constables Farmanullah and Special Police Official (SPO) Mukarram Khan left Basic Health Unit (BHU) Bishgram to provide security to a polio team but came under attack near Markhani Bridge in Maidan area resulting in their on-the-spot death.

'Two policemen were killed. They were shot with pistols [and] we do not know how many attackers there were,' said another police officer.

Police official Sultan Ghani said 'The polio campaign has been suspended after the incident in...