Three police officers were killed in two separate incidents in Pakistan's restive northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, police said on April 6.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police said on X, formerly Twitter, that militants fired at a police vehicle late on April 5 in the Lakki Marwat district, killing Gul Muhammad Khan, a deputy superintendent, and police officer Naseem Gul, who was sitting with Khan in the vehicle.
Heavy police reinforcements arrived at the scene, but the assailants fled. Officials said a search for the gunman was under way.
According to the police, the other incident happened on April 5 in South Waziristan when militants fatally shot the policeman guarding a polio vaccination group.
The head of police station in Wana, Allah Nawaz Wazir, told RFE/RL that armed men on motorcycles stopped the polio vaccination workers and told the guard to drop his weapon. According to him, when he refused, the gunmen started shooting.
Police officials say that they have filed a case against the unknown assailants and have started investigating.
No one has declared responsibility for either incident.
Health workers distributing the polio vaccine and the security forces assigned to protect them have been targeted in the past by Islamist extremists who falsely assert that immunization campaigns are Western plots to sterilize Muslim children.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province borders Afghanistan and has borne the brunt of militant violence since the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), unilaterally ended a cease-fire with the central government in November 2022. The province is a former stronghold of the TTP and is allied with the Afghan Taliban.
Since late 2022 dozens of police and civilians have been killed in attacks in the southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including Lakki Marwat.
Residents of those districts have complained about the security situation for a long time. But the district police say security has improved and with the help of the public, the police force has continued to take measures against armed and criminal groups and are committed to security in the area.