By Ahmad Sultan and Sardar Razmal
NANGARHAR/KUNDUZ (Reuters) – Unknown gunmen killed a female police officer in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Thursday, officials said, the second deadly attack against women in the city in a week as a spate of targeted killings spreads fear in urban centres.
The body of a female police officer was taken to a city hospital in Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province, said Gulzad Sangar, a hospital spokesman.
Farid Khan, a provincial police spokesman, said two suspects were arrested in connection with the incident, but didn’t provide details.
“She was on the way to her job when gunmen attacked her,” he said.
On Tuesday, unknown gunmen shot and killed three women vaccinators in Jalalabad. That incident came less than a month after three female media workers were killed in an attack claimed by Islamic State militants.
A wave of assassinations has hit urban centres since peace talks began between the Taliban and the Afghan government last year in Doha, many of them targeting professional women as well as government employees, media and civil society members. The government blames most targeted killings on the Taliban, who deny involvement
Also on Thursday, an explosion rocked a police checkpoint in western Herat province, killing two officers and injuring two others, according to police spokesman Abdul Ahad Walizada.
It was not clear who was behind any of Thursday’s attacks.
Separately, a prominent religious scholar was killed on Wednesday in northeastern Takhar province after a small bomb was attached to his vehicle. Three others were injured in the blast, local officials said.
(Reporting by Ahmad Sultan in Nangarhar and Sardar Razmal in Kunduz; Writing by Abdul Qadir Sediqi; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
