Female legislator gunned down in Kandahar

KABUL, April 12 (KUNA) -- Armed men gunned down a female legislator of a provincial assembly in Afghanistan's troubled province of Kandahar Sunday afternoon.
Sitara Achakzai (Asakzai), elected member of the Kandahar provincial assembly, was ony way to her house in the main Kandahar city when intercepted by armed men and sprayed bullets at her.
No eyewitness account of the attack is immediately available with police so far, but officials said the attackers escaped the scene after committing the crime.
Agha Lalai, head of the reconciliation commission in Kandahar, once known as the stronghold of Taliban and birth place of the movement, confirmed the attack and killing of the female Afghan legislator.
Quoting some locals in the area where the attack was carried out on the female parliamentarian, Lalai said the assailants escaped on a motorbike.
A police official, who wished not to be named, said that the assailants ambushed the car of Sitara Achakzai with automatic weapons near her house in the jurisdiction of fifth police station of the city of Kandahar.
Police officials said they had launched investigations into the incident. As a security measure to nab the culprits, a senior official said police security had been beefed up on all entry and exit points of the city.
Kandahar is considered the birth place of the Taliban movement and their stronghold. Ealier, militants had gunned down head of the women affairs department Safia Amma Jan in the same city.
Taliban are against the women participation in politics of doing jobs in government or non-governmental organisation. After grabbing power in Afghanistan in the late nineties, the militants had banned women from attending offices or coming out of their houses without accompanied by their male relatives.
Schools were also closed in Afghanistan by the Taliban, who believed that it was necessary for girls and women to remain inside the four walls of their houses. No one has so far claimed responsibility for the killing of Sitara Achakzai. (end) gk.tg KUNA 121638 Apr 09NNNN