A female lawmaker in the Afghanistan parliament and her three young children were kidnapped by Taliban gunmen as she made her way to celebration to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid, an official said Wednesday.
Fariba Ahmadi Kakar was travelling between Kandahar and Kabul at the weekend when gunmen swooped in and took them hostage, The Deputy Governor of the Ghazni Province, Mohammad Ali Ahmadi told NBC News.
An Afghan National Security Forces operation later freed the her daughters aged four and six and a third child whose gender and age are unknown, Ahmadi added.
But Kakar remains in captivity because she is being held in a separate location, he said.
Taliban Spokesman Zabulullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the kidnapping but would not say what the terms for her release might be.
However Ahmadi told NBC News that the militant group are demanding the release of prisoners in exchange for her freedom.
A report from the Navy Graduate School said Kakar, entered the lower house of the Afghan parliament, known as the Wolesi Jirga (House of the People) in 2005. She was described a "self educated teacher"
The kidnapping happened just days after another attack on another Afghan female lawmaker in the remote Ghazni province.
Senator Roh Gul Khairzad's daughter and bodyguard were killed during an ambush as they made their way home to the Nimroz province from Kabul, last week.
Khairzad, 39, and her husband were also injured during the assault.
The Taliban did not claim responsibility for that attack, although the route is well known for ambushes by the group.
Last month, the most senior policewoman in southern Helmand province was also shot dead on her way to work.
The attacks come within a month of Afghanistan’s parliament passing a law lowering the proportion of provincial council seats reserved for women.
The Wolesi Jirga, or lower house of parliament, this week approved a revised electoral law that included the reduction of the guaranteed proportion of the 420 provincial council seats allotted to females from 25 percent down to 20 percent.
The purpose of guaranteeing some seats for women was to ensure female representation in the male-dominated society where women and girls are still often treated as second-class citizens.
NBC News' Akbar Shinwari and Henry Austin contributed to this report.
Related: