Afghan politicians and women’s rights activists are demanding justice after a prominent journalist and political adviser was murdered in broad daylight.

Mina Mangal, who worked as a television presenter before entering politics, was shot dead at close range in Kabul on Saturday.

Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah vowed her killers would be caught.

Police are investigating, but it is still unclear who is behind her murder.

In a statement released on Saturday the interior ministry said that Ms Mangal, who was on her way to work as an adviser for the Afghan parliament’s cultural affairs commission, was shot dead around 0720 local time.

Afghanistan’s Supreme Court, and civil society groups including the commission into violence against women, have called for a serious investigation into her killing.

Ms Mangal had recently posted on Facebook that she had received threats and feared for her life, prominent women’s rights activist Wazhma Frogh said on Twitter.

The nature of the threats is unclear, but a police spokesman told Reuters news agency they were also investigating a family dispute.

Since her death Afghan social media has been vocal about the levels of violence against women in the country.

Some pointed out that some of Afghanistan’s most high-profile crimes against women took place in daylight and in the green zone of the capital, Kabul.

“A woman has been killed in daylight because a man thought she deserves to be killed,” Wazhma Frogh wrote.

Rights groups have documented increasing cases of gender-based violence, particularly in areas dominated by the Taliban. Reporters Without Borders also listed Afghanistan as the deadliest country for journalists in 2018.