Taliban insurgents have abducted dozens of Afghan policemen in the north-east of the country, the militant group and local officials say.
The Taliban said in a statement that 50 police officers were ambushed in Chapa Dara, Kunar province, on Saturday.
Local Afghan officials said several dozen men were captured, without giving the exact number.
The policemen - who were travelling in a convoy - were reportedly off duty and unarmed when the militants struck.
The police were returning from neighbouring Nuristan province where they had gone to collect their salaries, provincial governor Jamaluddin Badr told Reuters.
"The policemen were in civilian clothes and had no weapons with them," the governor added.
In a statement emailed to several media outlets, Taliban militants said they were holding 50 Afghan policemen.
Their fate would be decided by the Taliban's military council in the area, the statement added.
Kunar and Nuristan are remote mountainous provinces bordering lawless areas of Pakistan where Taliban militants are said to have safe havens from which they launch attacks into Afghanistan.
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