KANDAHAR, Oct 19: Taliban militants hijacked a bus in southern Afghanistan recently and killed as many as 40 passengers, authorities said, although only six beheaded bodies were recovered by Sunday.

A spokesman for the militia confirmed that a passenger bus had been hijacked in Kandahar province and said 27 people on board had been killed because they were soldiers. The defence ministry said they were not troops.

Kandahar provincial police chief Mutihullah Khan Qatah said there were 50 passengers aboard the bus when it was ambushed on Thursday in Maiwand district about 50km east of Kandahar city. “Among them 10 people were released after they were said to be civilians.

“The rest of them were killed,” he said.

Six bodies were in the district clinic and about two dozen more were believed to be in a Taliban-controlled area, Qatah told a media briefing later. “We are still trying to find them.”—AFP