(Reuters) – No one ever claimed responsibility after a suicide bomber rammed into the vehicle of celebrated female parliamentarian Shukria Barakzai. She walked away from the wreckage after the Nov. 16 blast that killed three civilians and wounded 20.
The Taliban often takes responsibility for suicide bombings – it did so for one against the British embassy that killed six people days later. Barakzai, 42, said Afghanistan’s spy agency had warned her before about threats to her life from the insurgent group. But an investigation into the attack on the outspoken women’s rights activist has led nowhere.
Barakzai, a tireless campaigner for women’s rights, has no shortage of potential enemies, including powerful warlords, as Afghanistan’s regional chieftains are known. “Our Parliament is a collection of lords,” Barakzai once famously said. “Warlords, drug lords, crime lords.”
Barakzai was only a few hundred metres from the Parliament building, her destination, when the suicide bomber rammed into her armoured car.
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