According to a police official the attack happened in the village of Dhal Behzadi about 75 kilometers south of Peshawar.

Members of the vaccination team were unhurt, the official said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assault.

The attack came on the third day of a five-day polio vaccination drive across the province.

The body of the deceased cop was shifted to a nearby hospital and handed over to the next of kin.

The provincial police have launched a search operation to nab the accused after gathering evidence.

Aimal Khan, provincial spokesman for the anti-polio program, told AP that the goal of the five-day drive was to vaccinate 6.24 million children up to age 5 across the province. Nearly 30,340 teams of trained workers were going home to home to administer the vaccines, he said.

Khan said after Sunday’s attack in the district of Kohat, security for the vaccination teams has been enhanced. Some 40,000 police and paramilitary troops are assigned to provide security during the vaccination campaign.

Last month, a police officer was killed while returning home from guarding a polio vaccination team in Peshawar and a roadside bomb exploded when a police van escorting a vaccination team was passing by in the Ladha area of South Waziristan. The explosion wounded a police officer but the vaccination team was unhurt.