A police officer working on Pakistan's first polio vaccination drive of the year was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen Monday, police said.Pakistan deployed thousands of police officers to protect health workers who go house-to-house to inoculate children and are targeted by militants who falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.

Pakistan on Monday kicked off its first anti-polio drive of 2025 after witnessing a sharp increase in polio cases last year. Over 45 million children under the age of five will be immunized with the anti-polio vaccine during the campaign which will continue till Feb.

A Pakistan police officer travelling to guard polio vaccinators was shot dead Monday, police said, on the first day of a nationwide immunisation effort after a year of rising cases.