Bomb Kills Pakistan Polio Campaign Guard

 February 16, 2014
In Pakistan, officials say a bomb explosion has killed a police officer who was guarding a polio vaccination campaign.

Officials said a second officer was wounded in the blast in the Budhni area, on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Anti-polio workers and their guards in Pakistan have repeatedly been targeted with attacks by Islamic militants.

The militants claim the campaigns are used by Western nations to spy and to make Muslim children sterile.

Polio, an infectious disease which can cripple a person’s central nervous system, is endemic in just three countries -- Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria.

The World Health Organization has said Peshawar is currently the world’s “largest reservoir” of polio.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP