Gunmen on motorcycles shot and killed seven police officers Wednesday in two separate attacks in the port city of Karachi, police said.
(FOX)- The slain officers had been deployed to protect health workers administering polio vaccinations. No health workers were harmed in the attacks in Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province, local police official Mohammad Ijaz said.
Another senior police officer, Feroze Shah, said authorities had no plans to suspend the polio campaign despite the attack.
Earlier, provincial Home Minister Suhail Anwar also told the Pakistani Geo news network that the seven officers were killed minutes apart. He said the attackers targeted police who had been deployed in the city in connection with the polio campaign, which was launched to vaccinate children.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif strongly condemned the “terrorist attack” on police in Karachi.
In a statement, he said police officers sacrificed their lives to secure the future of our coming generation.
Polio, which can cause paralysis and death, remains endemic in Pakistan.