DHAKA: At least 15 people were killed by alleged Taliban gunmen while they were travelling by road in the central Afghan province of Ghor.

The attackers stopped two minibuses overnight, ordered the passengers out and shot them dead, according to the province’s police chief.

The victims - including three women and a child - were from the minority Hazara community, which has been targeted by the Taliban in the past.

Abdul Hai Khatibi, a spokesman for the governor of Ghor province, told that the attackers had ‘ordered all passengers to stand in one line, and then they shot them dead one by one’.

The spokesman is quoted as saying that one man managed to flee the attack. A newly married couple were among the dead.

He says people across Afghanistan have been travelling before the festival of Eid, often choosing to move by night to avoid the heat of day.

BDST: 1614 HRS, JULY 25, 2014