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A top policewoman in southern Afghanistan died early Monday after being shot by unknown attackers, months after her predecessor was also slain. Her death, one of the latest in a string of attacks on prominent Afghan women, could make it even harder to recruit female officers in a deeply conservative nation where just 1 per cent of the police are women, the Globe and Mail reports.

Sub-Inspector Negar, who like many Afghans went by one name, was buying grass for her lambs outside her home Sunday when two gunmen drove up on a motorbike and fired at her, said Omar Zawak, a spokesman for the governor of Helmand province. She suffered a wound to the neck, and the attackers got away.

Doctors tried to save her, but police spokesman Fareed Ahmad Obaidi said she died at 1 a.m. Monday. Her body, wrapped in a worn green blanket, was placed on a stretcher and taken to a dusty desert cemetery in a police ambulance. Negar’s funeral was attended by colleagues and family members, many vowing revenge on the attackers.