<p><a href="/en/afganistan/kabul/charikar" class="glossify-link">CHARIKAR</a>): A mass grave, dating back to the 1970s when Soviet-backed communists were in power, has been unearthed in the Bagram district of central Parwan province, residents and officials claimed on Wednesday.</p>
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<p>The mass grave was found on Tuesday when an excavator was loading sand on a truck in the Youzbashi village of the district, resident Abdul Sattar told Pajhwok Afghan News. The villagers informed security personnel, who pulled 20 bodies out of the crypt.</p>
<p>Sattar believed the victims were from Youzbashi, Tokhchi, Deh <a href="/en/mullah" class="glossify-link">Mullah</a> and Ghulam Ali villages of Bagram and Koh-i-Safi. Some religious scholars, teachers and other people had been detained by the governments of Noor Mohammad Taraki and Hafiz-ul-Amin in 1978 and 1979. The captives had been unaccounted for.<br /> Three of the corpses were of children. Funeral prayers for the victims would be held later in the day in the village, said another resident, Abdul Hadi.<br /> District police chief, Col. Zamaray Nasiri, confirmed finding the mass grave, saying a dozen dead bodies had been retrieved from the Soviet-era sepulcher.<br /> myn/mud</p>
