The police commander for Nuristan said the 40 men had travelled to that province to seek work with the Afghan Local Police, a new community police force being set up, but had been unsuccessful.
"We were unable to hire the men, and they were travelling back to their villages when they were taken," Nuristan police chief Shamsul Rahman Zahid told AFP, adding there were around 40 villagers in the group.
Earlier, the Taliban issued a statement saying it had kidnapped 50 off-duty police officers in Kunar province, which borders Nuristan.
The Taliban, who are waging a bloody insurgency against Afghanistan`s Western-backed government, have been known to make false claims and to exaggerate the casualties they inflict.
The Afghan Local Police force was established last year to address a chronic shortage of police officers in some of the most unstable parts of the country ahead of a planned withdrawal of NATO forces by the end of 2014.
Around 4,000 Afghans have so far been recruited to the force, which is separate from the national police and has no powers of arrest.
On Tuesday, President Hamid Karzai announced that seven areas of the country will come under local security forces this summer, the first stage of a transition from NATO to Afghan control.
As the transition looms, Afghanistan`s security forces, which comprise 118,000 police officers and a 159,500-strong military, are coming under increasing attack.
Earlier this month, 36 people died in a suicide blast at an army recruitment centre in Kunduz province, the second attack on the centre in three months. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
