A polio worker was shot dead while trying to persuade a family to vaccinate their children against the crippling virus.

Wajid Ali was killed in Mohmand district in northern Pakistan after allegedly remonstrating with a man over his failure to allow his children to take polio drops.

His killing was the latest of many attacks on vaccinators in Pakistan and comes amid growing concern over attacks on health workers worldwide.

Two men were accused of involvement in the killing, with one arrested and one still on the run, officials said.

Scores of frontline polio workers and their guards have been killed over the years in attacks by militants and extremists who claim the vaccination programme is a conspiracy, or the drops are harmful.

“I give Wajid's family my word that I will personally follow this case to its conclusion. Parents can refuse polio vaccination, but attacking and then killing innocent polio workers will not be tolerated, no matter what,” said Babar Atta, Imran Khan's special adviser on polio.

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The World Health Organisation also condemned the attack on health workers in one of the last surviving haunts of a virus that once crippled hundreds of thousands a year worldwide.

Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan are struggling to stamp out the last vestiges of the wild virus. Insecurity and the difficulty of reaching children in remote areas have made the last few cases stubbornly difficult to eradicate.

“We strongly condemn this and any attack targeting health care staff like Mr Ali, who are working hard to rid the world of polio and other diseases," said Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean.

"Health care should never be a target and WHO and our partners will not be deterred by such attacks.”

The arrested suspect allegedly told police the killing was driven by a personal dispute and nothing to do with the polio campaign, but officials and Mr Ali denied that.

“ Wajid had no personal enmity with anyone. He was on his duty and only tried to convince his assassin to let his children have the polio drops. But he refused and killed him,” his father, Malak Bakht Muneer told the Express Tribune.

Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only remaining haunts of the virus. Tens of thousands of health workers go door-to-door in Pakistan each month handing out drops to under-fives trying to stop the virus circulating.

Yet an 80-page external review commissioned for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative last year said the eradication drive had stalled because of difficulties vaccinating children amid insurgent violence.

While the virus has been rolled back over the past 30 years to only three countries, hopes of finally stamping it out in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria are so far thwarted by insecurity.

Cases in Afghanistan had more than doubled from the previous year as violence has worsened. The number of children beyond the reach of vaccinators because of Taliban or Islamic State group obstruction had also jumped.

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