A high-ranking police officer was murdered in Afghanistan on Monday in a string of recent attacks on top female officials likely carried out by the Taliban, The Hindu reported.
Sub-Inspector Negar, who like many Afghans went by her first name, shared the same fate as her predecessor who was slain just two months earlier.
Negar was purchasing food for her lambs when two men drove up on motorbikes and shot at her, according to Omar Zawak, spokesman for the governor of Helmand province. She was quickly rushed to the hospital where she died at 1 a.m. the following day.
Negar's funeral was held on Monday where her body was brought in by a police ambulance and attended by family, friends, and colleagues.
"They have given us warning that one of us will be killed every three months and we will be killed one by one," said Malalai, a fellow police officer.
Although the identities of the assailants are unknown, the Taliban is suspected of carrying out Negar's murder. The Taliban has not claimed responsibility and could not be reached for comment by other news outlets.
Negar was a top ranking police officer in Helmand province and worked in the criminal investigations unit in Lashkar Gah city. She recently took over the job for Islam Bibi, a respected female officer who was killed in July by unknown gunmen.
Given the conservative nature of Afghan culture, Bibi once said her own family members threatened her for accepting the position in a country where only one percent of the police force is female.
According to Negar's son-in-law, Faizullah Khan, Negar was 41 and is survived by one son and one daughter. She began her career in the police force in the early 1990s but was forced to leave after the Taliban took over and banned women from working, Khan said.
"She was like a mother to me, and I learned so many things from her," he added. "I will serve my elders and people, my sisters and my brothers till the last drop of blood in my body. They should not believe that it is the end," Khan said of the attackers.
