A female member of Afghanistan’s peace negotiating team has been slightly wounded in an assassination attempt, officials say.
Fawzia Koofi, who is also a former parliamentarian, was attacked on Friday afternoon near the capital, Kabul, while returning from a visit to the northern province of Parwan.
Koofi is part of a 21-member team charged with representing the Afghan government in upcoming peace talks with the Taliban, following a US deal with the militants that was struck in February.
The head of the Afghan peace delegation, Mohammed Masoom Stanekzai, wrote that Koofi had survived the attack and was “in good health”.
Fawzia Koofi and her sister Maryam Koofi stopped at a market in the Qarabagh district when gunmen attacked them, said Tariq Arian, a spokesman for the interior ministry.
Both the Taliban and an Islamic State group affiliate continue to carry out attacks against Afghan government figures, but Zabihullah Maujhid, a Taliban spokesman, denied the group was involved.
Koofi is also a women’s rights activist who has been a vocal Taliban critic. A message on her Facebook page said she suffered a wound to her right arm. “Thankfully not a life threatening injury.”❐
