KABUL, Afghanistan — From a dusty village in central Afghanistan, where life depends on the almond harvest, Najiba Hussaini made it far.

Graduating at the top of her high school class, she won a scholarship to earn a degree in computer applications in India, and she went on to the port city of Kobe in Japan to receive a master’s degree in information systems.

Last fall, Ms. Hussaini, 28, returned to lead the database unit at Afghanistan’s mining ministry, developing applications to digitize an old bureaucracy that is crucial to the country’s economic future.

Her life and dreams were cut short on Monday morning as she was making her way to work. A Taliban suicide bomber detonated a vehicle full of explosives in western Kabul, killing at least 24 people and wounding another 42, according to Najib Danish, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry. Another senior security official put the number of dead at 38.

Image Najiba Hussaini, in a photograph from social media.

As has become routine after such large blasts in Kabul, family members searched for hours for news of loved ones, going from hospital to hospital. Many of the bodies, including Ms. Hussaini’s, were badly burned.

“We identified her from her ring — silver, with a turquoise-colored stone,” said Hussain Rezai, who was to be formally engaged to Ms. Hussaini within weeks.

He said he had already traveled to Shahristan District, in Daikundi, to seek the approval of Ms. Hussaini’s parents. Preparations for the engagement were in place, and the couple expected to go to Daikundi in a few weeks and make the engagement official.

Instead, Ms. Hussaini’s charred body, tied to the top of a small van, set off on the treacherous 18-hour journey from Kabul to Shahristan. The vehicle, with Mr. Rezai and Ms. Hussaini’s other loved ones on board, was to travel all night, making its way on dirt roads through patches of Taliban country.