Nasratullah Jamshidi, a spokesman for 209 Shaheen Military Corps on Wednesday rejected claims that the Taliban has regained control of Mirza Olang valley in Sayyad district of northern Sar-e-Pul province.

“Our security forces are still there and have started searching houses,” Jamshidi said adding that “we are rejecting the news that insurgents again took control of the valley.”

In the meantime, Hussain Sharifi, a local police commander said on Wednesday that the “Taliban attacked the valley on Tuesday night and have re-taken most parts of the valley and only Sheram hill is in the control of the security forces.”

He said that the troops have retreated from the area. 

However, he did not provide further details.

This comes a few hours after three mass graves containing dozens of bodies were found in the valley following a coordinated attack by militants in the area last week. 

TOLOnews reporter Samim Faramarz says that according to residents, the majority of those buried in these graves were civilians and some of them were members of the public uprising forces but the bodies of three children, who were beheaded, were also recovered. 

42 bodies so far have been removed from these graves, Faramarz said.

Reza, a resident of Mirza Olang, who returned to his village, after ten days, in search of his father, said he found a pair of shoes belonging to his father.

“These are my father’s shoes. He is no longer alive. He has been killed. My father and 22 others were buried in a corner of this hill in the mass grave,” he said.

It is said that these civilians were massacred while trying to escape an attack by the Taliban and Daesh militants. 

The Taliban has rejected these claims but Daesh on Tuesday claimed responsibility.