Female Afghanistan MP taken hostage

A female MP in Afghanistan has been kidnapped by likely Taliban insurgents as she traveled with her children in Ghazni, on the route from Kandahar to Kabul, with the insurgents demanding the release of four Taliban prisoners in exchange for her. 

Kakar was traveling with her three children when she was taken at gunpoint on Saturday, and then brought to an undisclosed location by a gang of kidnappers.

Read more from GlobalPost: Female Afghan police officer shot dead 

"The security forces released her children (two girls, one boy) in an operation on Monday. But she has been kept in another location, we are still searching for her," said deputy provincial governor of Ghazni, Mohammad Ali Ahmadi, to AFP of the incident. 

"The town elders are also involved in talks with the kidnappers to secure her release," he added to AFP. 

A Pashtun, Fariba Ahmadi Kakar was elected to the Afghan Parliament in 2005, and currently represents Kandahar province. 

Her children were later released by a joint operation involving both NATO and Afghan intelligence, but Kakar remains held in another location, writes the BBC. 

Female politicians and other prominent women in Afghanistan often find themselves in danger, as exemplified by the 2009 shooting death of local politician Sitara Achakzai in Kandahar — likely murdered for her controversial opinions on women's rights. 

In a more recent incident, Helmand's top female police officer, Islam Bibi, was shot in July as she rode on a motorbike with her son-in-law. 

Politician and teacher Safia Amajan, head of the department of women's affairs in Kandahar, was gunned down by the Taliban at the age of 63 in 2006, shot directly in in front of her house.