QUETTA: A police officer, deployed to guard the polio vaccine team, was shot dead when unidentified men opened fire at them in Pishin’s Kill Tarata area on Tuesday.

The deceased police officer was identified as Head Constable Muhammad Hashim s/o Ghulam Muhammad, who belonged to Kakar Killi Machan Teh cast, said the police statement.

He was performing duty with the vaccination team in Sector-3 area of Kill Tarata. The Pishin SP reached the site and cordoned off the area. The search for killers was under way.

The incident comes a day after the government launched a sub-national polio vaccination campaign. Over 25 million children under five years of age will be vaccinated in 83 districts of Pakistan, including southern KP where the current outbreak is, during the five-day campaign.

The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) and security forces claimed to have killed a terrorist during the polio drive in the Garah Guldad area of Kulachi Tehsil on Monday, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

The police spokesman said that two “terrorists spontaneously opened indiscriminate fire on the CTD police during the anti-polio campaign”.

They claimed that the most wanted terrorist Waheed son of Rahim Bakhsh was killed in the exchange of fire with them while another accomplice Bin Yamin son of Gul Nawaz managed to escape. “The police have also recovered one hand grenade, one SMG, three Bandolier, 10 magazines, and 80 cartridges.”

The killed terrorist had been declared wanted by the Dera police in different cases of attacking security forces, the spokesman said.