KABUL: Gunmen on motorbike shot dead a women’s rights activist and her brother north of Afghanistan’s capital Thursday, officials said, as a wave of assassinations ravages the violence-wracked country.
Freshta Kohistani, aged 29, was the second activist to be killed in two days after a prominent pro-democracy advocate was gunned down in Kabul on Wednesday.
Their murders follow a similar pattern seen in recent weeks, in which prominent Afghans have died in targeted killings in broad daylight, several of them in the capital.
“Unknown gunmen on motorbike assassinated Freshta Kohistani in Kohistan district of Kapisa province,” interior ministry spokesman Tariq Arian told reporters.
Kapisa provincial governor Abdul Latif Murad told AFP that the shooting had taken place near Kohistani’s home and that her brother was also killed in the attack.
Kohistani had enjoyed a relatively large following on social media, and regularly organized civil society events in Kabul calling for women’s rights. She was married and had one child.
Days before her death, she wrote on Facebook that she had asked for protection from the authorities after receiving threats. She had also condemned the ongoing wave of assassinations of journalists and other prominent figures.
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