Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the Sunday killings of two polio vaccination volunteers in the country 's northwest , calling their slayings `` cowardly and inhuman . '' The workers were shot to death while visiting homes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwestern Pakistan , police said . Islamic militants have targeted anti-polio campaigns since U.S. intelligence used a fake vaccination program to aid its hunt for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden . Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio remains endemic , with 58 cases reported in 2012 , according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative . In a statement issued by his office , Zardari said the volunteers died in service of a `` noble cause '' and called for tighter security for the effort . `` While condemning the death of the two polio volunteers , the president said that such cowardly and inhuman acts of the militants and extremists can not deter the strong resolve of government to eradicate polio from the country , '' the statement said . The CIA used a fake vaccine program to collect DNA from residents of bin Laden 's compound to verify the al Qaeda leader 's presence before a May 2011 raid that killed him . Bin Laden had been holed up in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad , about 60 miles north of the capital , Islamabad . Sunday 's killings capped a bloody weekend dominated by a bus bombing and hospital siege in Quetta , the capital of the southwestern province of Balochistan . Militants attacked a university bus carrying women , then struck the hospital where the survivors were taken for treatment , authorities said Saturday . The 28 dead included 14 women killed on the bus , along with four nurses , four police officers and four militants , police said . At one point , the attackers held hundreds of patients , physicians and nurses hostage as they battled security forces . Earlier Saturday , assailants bombed the home of Muhammad Ali Jinnah , the founder of the Pakistani state , in Balochistan , killing a police officer and wounding an employee , authorities said . Interior Minister Chaudry Nisar said Sunday that there was a `` secret war '' going on in the province , and the government had to work `` with all the parties involved '' to bring it to an end . `` The government is ready to hold talks with those that believe in dialogue , '' he said . `` But the government will not hold talks with those that propagate and practice extremism . ''
The volunteers were killed Sunday in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa . Hide Caption Pakistan had 58 cases of polio in 2012 . The CIA used a fake vaccine program to verify bin Laden 's location .