Two employees of the Afghan human rights body were killed in a bomb attack in Kabul on Saturday, the agency said.
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission said the couple died when a homemade “sticky bomb” attached to their vehicle exploded in the morning.
Kabul police spokesman Ferdaws Faramurz confirmed the attack, which has not been claimed by any group.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan condemned the killings. “There can be no justification for the attacks against human rights defenders,” she said on Twitter, calling for an immediate investigation.
It comes less than a week after two prosecutors and three other employees of the attorney general’s office were shot dead by gunmen outside Kabul.
On May 30, a television journalist died when a minibus carrying employees of the private Khurshid TV channel was hit by a roadside bomb in the city. That attack was claimed by the ISIL group (ISIS).
Violence had subsided in much of the country after the Taliban offered a brief ceasefire to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr festival last month, but authorities say the group has escalated attacks in recent weeks.
Most Taliban attacks have targeted Afghan security forces, although there are regular police reports that civilians have been killed in roadside bomb blasts.
On Saturday, the National Security Council said 21 civilians were killed and 30 wounded in attacks last week in 14 provinces.
The Taliban and the Afghan government are preparing to enter into long-delayed peace talks aimed at ending the war in the country. The so-called intra-Afghan talks come after the Taliban signed an agreement with the United States.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, wants to withdraw the troops from the country after almost 19 years. He had ousted the Taliban from power in an invasion in 2001.
