PESHAWAR: A three-day polio immunisation drive kicked off in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province on Saturday amid tight security.

A total of 3,287,429 children under the age of five years will be administered polio drops in 13 districts of the province during the immunisation campaign.

According to the Polio Monitoring Cell, 8,444 mobile, 863 fixed, 737 transit and 67 roaming teams are taking part in three-day drive that has started in Peshawar, Charsadda, Mardan, Nowshera, Swat, Kohat, Bannu, Hangu, Karak, Dera Ismail Khan, Lakki Marwat, Tank, and Torghar districts of the province.

Read: WHO declares Peshawar world's 'largest reservoir' of polio

Stringent security measures were adopted for the immunisation drive as militant groups often attack polio teams as they see vaccination campaigns as a cover for espionage.

Fata along with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was declared a hub of the virus in Pakistan.

Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world where polio remains endemic but efforts to eradicate the disease have been severely hindered in recent years as militants continue to attack immunisation teams and polio workers.

This year, 15 polio cases have been reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 11 from Fata, six from Balochistan and four from Sindh.

Related: 25,000 cases of polio drops refusals reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa