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PESHAWAR: A bomb targeting a polio protection team in northwestern Pakistan Monday killed at least five police officers, officials said.

“A police truck transporting around 25 policemen for anti-polio campaign duties was targeted by an IED (improvised explosive device),” Anwar ul Haq, a senior government official in Bajaur district, told AFP.

He said at least five police officers were killed and at least 20 others were wounded.

Kashif Zulfiqar, a senior police officer in the district, confirmed the death toll.

The attack happened in Mamund in Bajaur district, on the border with Afghanistan, in an area where militancy has been rising since the Taliban took control of Kabul in 2021.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but Islamist militants, including the Pakistan Taliban, have killed scores of polio vaccination workers and their security escorts in the past.