MARDAN: Gunmen opened fire on a polio team in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province's Mardan district, killing one policeman and critically injuring another on Wednesday.

The police had resumed guarding the teams after an incident in February in which a policeman was shot dead while protecting a polio vaccination team on the outskirts of Mardan.

District Police Officer Tahir Ayub  told  that  unidentified armed attackers riding a motorbike attacked the security personnel on guard with the polio team in  Par Hoti area of Mardan and one of them died on the spot while the other cop was injured

“The polio team comprising two females and a male remained safe,” he added.

No has claimed responsibility for the attack but the authorities believe the outlawed militants groups had always been behind such attacks.

A superintendent of the health department in Mardan told Dawn.Com that the polio campaign in other parts of the district continued as per routine and the polio teams remained in the filed even after the attack.

The policeman Raj Wali from Katlang area of Mardan died on way to hospital while Ashfaq was injured critically in the attack.

Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only countries where polio is endemic. Polio cases in Pakistan hit 198 in 2011, the highest figure for more than a decade and the most of any country in the world, according to the UN.