A policeman safeguarding the polio team was martyred on Sunday after unidentified assailants opened fire at him in the Garha Shah area of the Tank district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. This was the second such incident to occur in the area in as many days.

The development was shared by the K-P Police in Twitter and Facebook posts with a picture of the martyred policeman. He was identified as Constable Nazir Khan.

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack. However, the TTP had claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack on the polio team near the Garha Fatah area of Tank district in K-P. In the attack, a police officer was killed and an FC soldier was injured after unidentified men on a motorcycle opened fire at them. It was the first attack since the TTP on Friday announced the end of a one-month cease-fire with the government.

The K-P province on December 10 had started a province-wide anti-polio vaccination campaign. During the campaign, the authorities are also administering a dose of Vitamin A to children between 6-59 months.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries left with the poliovirus. Unvaccinated children on both sides of the border are at imminent risk.

"We are aware of the risks of cross-border circulation of the virus between the two countries and we are now focused more on further strengthening our robust mechanisms and strategies to address the issue," Dr Shahzad Baig, the coordinator of the Pakistan Polio Eradication Initiative, was quoted as saying in an official statement on Wednesday.

It added that more than 290,000 frontline health workers would go house to house for vaccination during the nationwide drive.