The blast took place on Sunday when an assailant attacked Shukria Barakzai’s vehicle with an explosives-laden car as she was heading to the parliament in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

“(Shukria) Barakzai -- she is fine and suffers small injuries,” Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said in a message posted on Twitter, adding, “Unfortunately three civilians (were) martyred and around 17 injured in today’s attack.”

The 42-year-old politician is a prominent advocate of women’s rights and media freedom in Afghanistan. Barakzai, who is a close ally of new President Ashraf Ghani, has received a number of awards for her activities.

On November 10, seven police officers, including a commander, were killed after a man wearing a military uniform reportedly set off his explosives at a police headquarters in the eastern province of Logar.

Earlier this month, the deputy governor of Afghanistan’s southern province of Kandahar was also killed by unknown gunmen.

The Taliban militants have stepped up their attacks against the Afghan government, foreign forces, and civilians.

The militants had vowed to escalate attacks on Afghan forces and US-led troops, their bases, diplomatic missions and vehicle convoys before foreign forces exit the country at the end of 2014.

In 2001, the United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity remains across the country despite the presence of tens of thousands of US-led troops.