KABUL, Sept 22: The United Nations said Sunday it was preparing a team to investigate reports of a grave in northern Afghanistan which is said to contain the bodies of hundreds of Taliban prisoners.

“We are holding consultations at the sites and once they are identified, we will proceed,” spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva told reporters.

Regional leaders in the country’s north have denied a report by Newsweek magazine that some 1,000 Taliban prisoners may have died of asphyxiation in container trucks while being transferred by the US-backed Northern Alliance.

The victims are thought to have died while being transferred from the northern city of Kunduz to the town of Shebargan, the base of regional strongman Abdul Rashid Dostam.—APP/AFP