Communist-era mass grave of nearly 400 found in Afghanistan

KABUL: The bodies of nearly 400 Afghan civilians killed during the communist regime that ended in 1992 have been found in a mass grave in northeastern Afghanistan, officials said on Thursday.   

The grave was found by local farmers in a desert just outside Faizabad, the capital town of the remote Badakhshan province, deputy governor Shams-ul Rahman Shams said.   

"We've so far recovered the bodies of some 380 people. They were killed during the communist time," Shams said.   

He said that most of the victims appeared to be civilians who had been killed for opposing the Moscow-backed communist regime.   

The discovery comes months after the Afghan parliament passed a reconciliation law which grants amnesty to those behind the decades of atrocities during the communist regime.   

President Hamid Karzai also signed the law but with amendments safeguarding the rights of individuals to seek justice for the crimes against them.