Anti-polio vaccination programs are on hold in the southwest Pakistan city of Quetta after gunmen murdered three female Polio Vaccination workers and their male driver.  No group has claimed responsibility, but previous attacks have been attributed to the Taliban.

“There was going to be security with this team before they went in and started their work.  However, no one could have thought that this team would be intercepted,” said Pakistan's national coordinator for polio eradication, Ayesha Raza Farooq.

The gunmen rode up on a motorbike and opened fired on the healthcare workers.  It’s the latest in a series of attacks on Polio workers in Pakistan, but the single deadliest.  More than 60 Pakistani polio workers, their guards, and/or drivers have been murdered since 2012.

The attacks are mostly attributed to Islamic extremists, such as the Taliban.  Militants falsely believe that the polio teams are spies, or that the vaccines cause infertility.  Pakistan is one of only three countries were Polio is endemic, the others being Afghanistan and Nigeria – all nations with active Islamic extremist militias causing havoc.  Pakistan has reported 260 cases of polio this year, the highest number since 2000.