JALALABAD: A female doctor was killed in a bomb blast in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad in what appeared to be another targeted hit, officials said Thursday, just days after three women media workers were gunned down in the area.
Journalists, religious scholars, activists and judges have all been victims of a recent wave of political assassinations across Afghanistan, forcing many into hiding — with some fleeing the country.
In the latest incident, the doctor was killed after a magnetic bomb was attached to the vehicle she was travelling in, according to a spokesman from the provincial governor’s office. A child was also injured by the explosion. “She was commuting in a rickshaw when the bomb went off,” the spokesman told AFP. Another spokesman from a provincial hospital also confirmed the incident and toll.
The blast was later claimed by the local affiliate of the Islamic State (IS), according to the SITE Intelligence Group, with the jihadist group saying the victim was “working as an apostate Afghan intelligence element”.
The attack comes two days after three female media workers were gunned down in Jalalabad in separate attacks that were just minutes apart. That attack was also claimed by IS.
Afghan and US officials have blamed the Taliban for the wave of violence in the past, but the group has repeatedly denied the charges.
The assassinations have been acutely felt by women, whose rights were crushed under the Taliban’s five-year rule, including being banned from working.
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