Sunday Times 2
Most senior female Afghan police officer shot dead
The most senior female police officer in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, has been shot dead outside her home as four girls were killed in a separate roadside bomb as they fetched water.
Lieutenant Islam Bibi, 37, was targeted by a gunman as she rode on a motorbike with her son-in-law on her way to work on Thursday morning.
Islam Bibi, 37, (right) commander of Helmand's women police officers, was shot and killed as she rode to work
Her death came as the four girls, aged 10 to 12, were killed by a roadside bomb in Helmand as they returned home after collecting water.
Helmand governor’s spokesman Ummar Zawaq says the girls were on their way home in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah when the bomb went off.
Lt Bibi and her son-in-law were injured in the shooting but she died of her injuries later in hospital.
Violence this year has matched its worst levels in nearly 12 years of war.
Omar Zwaak, spokesman for the governor of Helmand, told The Telegraph: ‘She was seriously injured and died of injuries later in the emergency ward in hospital.’
According to the most recent figures from the Interior Ministry, 180 civilians were killed across Afghanistan last month.
The Ministry of Defence says 11 Taliban militants were killed in two different operations in the province of Lowgar, just south of Kabul, and seven others were wounded. One Afghan soldier was also killed
Lt Bibi had won successive promotions in the police force since signing up in 2004.
She had been a refugee in Iran but returned to raise her family in Afghanistan in 2001.
The mother of three was one of just a few dozen women working for the force in Helmand.
She was responsible for training and recruiting women officers, as well as searching passengers at Lashkar Gah’s airport.
She told the newspaper that she joined up because of her love for Afghanistan and because the family were struggling to pay the bills.
However, her family were opposed to her career and, in an interview in April, told The Telegraph that her brother had tried to kill her.
She said: ‘My brother, father and sisters were all against me. In fact my brother tried to kill me three times.’
But despite the increased risk of being a woman police officer said she would be proud if her daughter also signed up.
Helmand Police said it is too early to speculate on who was responsible for her death.
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However, the Taliban have previously targeted serving women police officers.
In 2008, the county’s most prominent policewoman was shot dead in similar circumstances.
Malalai Kakar, 41, a mother of six, was leaving for work when she was shot in her car by two men on a motorbike, in the southern city of Kandahar. Her son, 18, was seriously wounded.
Taliban rebels, who banned women from joining the police when they were in power, claimed responsibility.
Mrs Kakar was the head of the department of crimes against women in the city and one of the country’s most high-profile women.
© Daily Mail, London
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