PESHAWAR: A policeman was killed and another was injured when a polio immunisation team was attacked in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Dera Ismail Khan district on Tuesday.

The two policemen were assigned to provide security to the vaccination team working in D I Khan's Purwa tehsil.

Following the attack, a large contingent of police reached the location of the attack and cordoned off the area.

The injured policeman was shifted to the district headquarter hospital.

Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world where polio remains endemic, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria. Efforts to eradicate it have been seriously hampered by the deadly targeting of vaccination teams in recent years.

Militant groups see vaccination campaigns as a cover for espionage, and there are also long running rumours about polio drops causing infertility.

According to the WHO, Pakistan recorded 91 cases of polio last year compared with 58 in 2012.