KABUL, Oct 24: More than 1,000 people shouted anti-Taliban slogans in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, protesting against the slayings this week of 26 young men from their community.

The unprecedented demonstration in the eastern Laghman province was one of the largest anti-Taliban gatherings since the fall of the Islamist regime following the US invasion in late 2001.

On Sunday, Taliban had stopped a bus in southern Kandahar province’s Maiwand district, a militant-controlled area, and killed 26 of the passengers. A Taliban spokesman said the men were targeted because they were members of Afghan security forces.

But Afghan officials disputed that any soldiers were on the bus, saying the Taliban insurgents had killed non-combatants who were on their way to find jobs in neighbouring Iran.

Protesters from Laghman’s Alingar district —- where most of those killed came from —- shouted “Death to killers” in the provincial capital of Mehtar Lam. They waved black flags in a sign of mourning.

“They were innocent people, trying to find jobs, and they killed them,” Abdul Wakil Attock, the spokesman for the provincial governor, said about the victims.

—AP