Afghan authorities have discovered a mass grave containing at least 100 bodies believed to be victims of a Taliban massacre in the 1990s, security officials said today.
The grave was discovered in the northern province of Balkh, about 15 km (10 miles) from the city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
Provincial security official Abdurrauf Taj said about 100 bodies had been found in the grave, which is about 100 metres (yards) from a residential area.
"We expect the number may rise," Mr Taj said.
Residents of the area said they suspected the dead were members of the Hazara ethnic minority, massacred after the Taliban captured the area in the late 1990s.
"These were all innocent people killed by the Taliban," said shopkeeper Mohammad Sami.
Provincial security commander Sardar Mohammad Sultani said the dead may have been massacred by the Taliban and investigators hoped to determine the truth.
None of the bodies were being moved until a team from Kabul inspected the site, Mr Sultani said.
Mass graves from Afghanistan's three decades of war are occasionally unearthed in different parts of the country.
Meanwhile a suicide bomber killed two Indian road engineers in southwest Afghanistan today, in the second deadly attack on road builders in a week.
The attack, the latest in a spell of intermittent violence in recent weeks following a traditional winter lull, happened in the remote southwestern province of Nimroz.
Provincial governor Ghulam Dastagir Azad said the road crew was at work on a stretch of highway.
"The bomber got out of a car and then blew himself up. Two Indian engineers were killed," Governor Azad said.
One Indian and two Afghans were wounded.