A bombing targeting police officers guarding a polio vaccination campaign in western Pakistan resulted in the deaths of 7 people, including 5 children, on Friday, according to the police, at a time when the virus is re-emerging in the country.
A senior police officer said that "a policeman, five children, and a shopkeeper" were killed in the blast that struck the city of Mastung, located south of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province.
Polio eradication campaigns in Pakistan are interspersed with attacks targeting vaccination teams, which have claimed the lives of hundreds of people over more than a decade.
Opposition to vaccination campaigns grew after the CIA organized a fake vaccination campaign to help track down former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.