Motorcycle attackers killed an Afghan women's rights activist and her brother north of Kabul on Thursday (December 24th), the latest in a series of targeted killings of civil society figures in Afghanistan, authorities said .
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Freshta Kohistani, 29, was “
murdered by unknown (circulating) motorcycle shooters in Kohistan district in Kapisa province
,” Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian told reporters.
Kapisa province governor Abdul Latif Murad said the assassination took place near Freshta Kohistani's home and his brother was also killed.
The murder has not been claimed.
Freshta Kohistani, who campaigned for former Afghan leader Abdullah Abdullah in the last presidential election, had a fairly large audience on social media and regularly organized civil society events in Kabul with a focus on rights women.
Abdullah, who is currently the government's chief negotiator for the Afghanistan peace process, said on Facebook that Freshta Kohistani, a "
courageous
"
activist
, was killed in a "
terrorist attack
".
“
The continuation of such assassinations is unacceptable,
” he added.
Several days before his death, Kohistani, who leaves a widower and a child, said on Facebook that he had asked the authorities for protection after receiving threats and denouncing the killings of journalists, politicians and human rights defenders who multiply in Afghanistan.
Mohammad Yousuf Rasheed, executive director of the Afghan Forum for Free and Fair Elections (Fefa), an independent organization, was killed in Kabul in an ambush by armed men on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, five people including two doctors working for the Afghan prison administration were killed in Kabul in the explosion of a car bomb.
On Monday, a journalist, Rahmatullah Nekzad, was killed on his way to the mosque by armed men in Ghazni (east).
He is the fourth journalist to be assassinated in two months in Afghanistan and the seventh this year.