BBC News

The International Red Cross is drastically reducing its presence in Afghanistan after seven staff members were killed in attacks this year. Many other humanitarian organisations have pulled out of the country in recent years as Taliban and Islamic State militants have stepped up attacks.

Gunmen have shot dead at least two policemen providing security to a team of polio workers in north-west Pakistan. A polio worker was also killed in a separate attack, local media have reported. The two policemen were travelling from the town of Swabi to Topi by motorbike when they were attacked. The polio worker was shot on the outskirts of Peshawar.

Few telephone calls can be as portentous as the one Mumtaz Begum, 35, received on 15 March 2011. At the time, it sounded like just another call from a supervisor to a health worker inviting her to a meeting the next morning about a forthcoming vaccination campaign. As it turned out, Ms Begum and 16 other lady health workers (LHWs), as they are known locally, were to become pawns in the hunt for the world's most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden. They have since been living under constant fear of attacks, have been called traitors by some and have lost their jobs.