Peshawar, Pakistan---Gunmen on Saturday killed the driver of a van carrying a two-member polio team in a restive Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said.
The two attackers fired shots from a nearby mountain on the van in Shalman area of Khyber region where the military is battling Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants.
"The two-member team was busy making preparations for the three-day polio campaign starting in the region from Monday when the two gunmen opened fire on their vehicle killing its driver on the spot," a senior local administration official Tayyab Abdullah told AFP.
The polio workers, however, escaped unhurt.
A senior health official of the district, Dr Muhammad Qasim also confirmed the incident.
Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio remains endemic. Attempts to eradicate it have been badly hit by opposition from militants and attacks on immunisation teams that have claimed 70 lives since December 2012.
The militants claim that the polio vaccination drive is a front for espionage or a conspiracy to sterilise Muslims.
AFP
