KABUL — A hard-charging Afghan police chief with deep experience in Afghanistan’s long conflict with the Taliban was killed in a blast Sunday in the eastern province of Nangarhar, which has been under threat from the Taliban and affiliates of the Islamic State.

The police chief, General Zarawar Zahid, was visiting an outpost in the Hisarak district when explosives placed near the outpost detonated, according to Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar. One of the general’s bodyguards was wounded.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing, according to a spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid.

Nangarhar, a province along the border with Pakistan, has faced mounting security perils over the past couple of years, with new Islamic State affiliates complicating the threat from the Taliban insurgency.

Zabihullah Zmarai, a member of the provincial council, said the Islamic State posed a danger in five districts, despite repeated operations by the Afghan army.

The extent of Taliban presence across nearly a dozen districts varies, Zmarai said. But the Hisarak district faced a collapse in recent weeks. That drew the attention of Zahid, who had gone there to supervise a counterattack.

Over the past decade, he rose from a bodyguard to a well-regarded police chief of several volatile provinces.

He had been wounded twice and had lost two brothers during the decades of war in Afghanistan.