Mursal Nabizada was among the few female parliamentarians who stayed in Kabul after the Taliban seized power in August 2021. Police say one of her bodyguards was also killed in the attack on Sunday.

Karen Decker, the U.S. chargé d’affaires for Afghanistan, tweeted: “Hold the perpetrators accountable!”

“Angered, heartbroken by murder of Mursal Nabizada – a tragic loss. I offer Mursal’s family my condolences and hope to see them receive justice for this senseless act,” Decker also said in her tweet.

Nabizada’s brother was also wounded in the attack, according to Khalid Zadran, spokesman for the Kabul police chief in the Taliban administration. A police investigation was underway, he added.

Abdullah Abdullah, a top official in Afghanistan’s former Western-backed government, said he was saddened by Nabizada’s death and hoped the perpetrators would be punished. He described her as a “representative and servant of the people.”

Nabizada was elected in 2019 to represent Kabul and stayed in office until the Taliban takeover. She was originally from eastern Nangarhar province. She also worked at a private non-governmental group, the Institute for Human Resources Development and Research.

After their takeover, the Taliban initially said they would not impose the same harsh rules over society as they did during their first rule of Afghanistan in the late 1990s.

But they have progressively imposed more restrictions, particularly on women. They have banned women and girls from schooling beyond the sixth grade, barred them from most jobs and demanded they cover their faces when outside.