QUETTA: A mother and her young daughter — who were both vaccinating children against polio — and two policemen lost their lives in separate terrorist attacks on Thursday.

The policemen died after assailants targeted them in the Zarghoon road area. One of the cops was injured.

The banned Tehreek Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack and released on social media a picture of the three personnel which it had taken before firing on them.

Police officials said that three personnel of Rapid Response Force (RRF) of Balochistan Constabulary were on their way to the police lines on a motorcycle when they came under attack.

In a separate attack claimed by Taliban, two men of Balochistan Constabulary are shot dead

“Motorcyclists opened indiscriminate fire with automatic weapons at the Sariab Phatak flyover,” SSP operations Nasibullah Khan said. “The policemen received multiple bullet injuries,” he said.

Police and FC personnel rushed to the site and took the dead and the injured to civil hospital.

“The RRF personnel were travelling on a motorbike in plain clothes,” officials said.

The deceased were identified as Constables Mohammad Ilyas and Shokat Ali. The injured Constable Mohammad Saeed was admitted to the hospital.

Two hours later, two female polio workers were killed in the Hazar Ganji area, a locality on the outskirts of Quetta. They were mother and daughter.

“Armed men on a motorbike targeted the women when they were administering anti-polio drops,” a senior officer at the Shalkot police station said.

Security forces personnel and rescue workers took the bodies to civil hospital. Both women received bullets in their heads, hospital sources said.

Police identified the mother as Sakina Bibi and her daughter as Rizwana.

Their family members said: “There were no security guards with the female health workers when they went for anti-polio campaign.”

The polio centre, which distributes vaccines among the polio teams, did not send security guards with them, they claimed.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack on the women.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2018