The attack on Lieutenant Negar - known only by her surname - comes after her female predecessor was killed.

A spokesman for the governor of Helmand said that Lt Negar was shot on Sunday near the police headquarters in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gar.

Lt Negar was rushed to hospital and is expected to survive.

Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission says violence against women has increased sharply over the last two years, and donor nations have expressed fears that advances in women's rights could be at risk when Nato-led troops withdraw next year.

Lt Negar was shot by a gunman on a motorbike, officials say.

Helmand Provincial governor's spokesman Omar Zawak told the AP news agency that the 38-year-old suffered a bullet wound to the neck.

He said that a medical team is trying to prevent her from being paralysed as a result of the injury.

Lt Negar served as a sub-inspector in the police criminal investigation department in Helmand.

She took over from Islam Bibi, a well-known police officer who was shot dead in July by unknown gunmen as she headed to work on her motorbike.

The commander of 32 female police officers, Lt Bibi, 37, was known as a role model for other women in the conservative province.

Several prominent Afghan women have been attacked or kidnapped in recent months.

Earlier this month the Taliban released a female member of parliament who they had held hostage for a month.

In August, insurgents ambushed the convoy of a female Afghan senator, seriously wounding her and killing her nine-year-old daughter.

In 2008 gunmen in Kandahar killed Lt-Col Malalai Kakar, the country's most prominent policewoman and head of Kandahar's department of crimes against women.