Pakistan, Oct. 15 -- A paramilitary Levies soldier deployed to protect a polio vaccination team was killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, police said on Tuesday.

The attack took place in the Matta Town of Swat Valley while a week-long nationwide campaign to inoculate 45 million children was underway, according to District Administration Official Amjad Khan.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where polio remains endemic. While the country has made major gains since the 1990s when annual cases exceeded 20,000, reducing the toll to eight by 2018, vaccine hesitancy, fueled by misinformation and resistance from some religious hard-liners, continues to undermine efforts.

"The attackers opened fire on the security team while wom...