Attackers wound 5 Pakistani policemen guarding polio workers

By RIAZ KHAN
Associated Press

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police say attackers armed with guns and hand grenades ambushed a police van assigned to guard polio workers in the country’s northwest, wounding five officers. Police say they returned fire after coming under attack near a bridge on Thursday in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. No group claimed responsibility for the attack but Islamic militants often target polio teams and police protecting them, falsely claiming the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children. The latest anti-polio campaign started this week in northwestern Pakistan and is the first in 2023.