Gunmen killed a policeman escorting a team of polio workers near Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan's north-west province on Sunday.

The health workers of the polio team are reportedly safe. The policeman was killed by motorcycle-borne gunmen about 75 km south of Peshawar–the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Pakistan and its western neighbour Afghanistan are the only two countries which have not eliminated the highly contagious polio as yet. Last year global health institutions had declared Nigeria free of the poliovirus.

Many people in Pakistan show strong resistance in administering polio drops to their children due to fears, hindering the elimination of the virus. A combination of ignorance among people and religious extremism has kept Pakistan from eradicating the crippling virus.

Polio kills tens of thousands in Pakistan every year.

The coronavirus pandemic which started in late 2020 in Wuhan, China, affected the polio vaccination drive severely.

Militants also oppose the polio vaccine. They have often attacked health workers, killing hundreds over years. With the security forces accompanying health teams for safety from extremists and also people, the militants have begun to attack the security forces.

Pakistan had re-started its polio drive in April this year but had to halt it in June after a series of attacks took the lives of many health workers. The militants claim, and many communities also believe, that polio vaccines cause infertility.