SWABI, Dec 13: Two policemen assigned to escort an anti-polio team and a vaccinator were killed in separate attacks in Swabi district and the Khyber tribal region on Friday.

Policemen Ijaz Ali and Iftihkar Ali were going to Topi tehsil in Swabi district on a motorcycle when unidentified people on a motorbike opened fire on them near Ghaziabad.

Ijaz, who belonged to Bachayi village, died and Iftikhar, a resident of Kalu Khan, was wounded. He was shifted to Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar where he succumbed to injuries.

Swabi is the hometown of Khalid Sheikh Haqqani, the vice chief of outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

Local health officials said vaccination in Swabi, Chota Lahor and Razaar tehsils had been completed and started in Topi tehsil on Friday.

They said 135 teams were taking part in the campaign and two policemen were escorting each team.

The district chief of Expanded Programme for Immunisation, Dr Yaqub, told Dawn that the campaign would continue.

Our Correspondent in Landi Kotal adds: A polio vaccinator was shot dead while going home after administering vaccination drops in Jamrud area of Khyber Agency.

Two men on a motorcycle opened fire on Mohammad Yousuf Afridi near his home in New Abadi area of Jamrud and fled. Afridi’s body was taken to Jamrud civil hospital and handed over to family after a post-mortem.

The World Health Organisation and tribal officials said political administration had cordoned off the area and launched a search operation for the killers.

They said 27 suspects had been detained and 12 motorcycles seized.

They said an investigation into the attack was going on and a decision whether to continue the anti-polio campaign in the area would be taken after the probe was over.

They said Afridi’s family had an old enmity and his brother was also killed about one and a half years ago.

A WHO official said that 200 teams were taking part in the anti-polio campaign across the tribal belt, except North and South Waziristan tribal regions.

The campaign in Fata was started on Thursday and scheduled to end on Saturday.

Polio workers continue to be attacked despite the fact that Maulana Samiul Haq, the chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, issued an edict in favour of vaccination.

According to APP, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan strongly condemned the attacks on polio teams and their guards.

He asked the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister and the federal government to arrest the killers and provide security to polio workers.

Imran Khan announced that next week he would himself spearhead the anti-polio campaign in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. He urged all political and religious leaders to join him and take a lead role in furthering the anti-polio drive