KABUL, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Taliban insurgents have captured around 10 people allegedly belonging to a private security company in Garmser district of southern Afghan Helmand province, police said Tuesday.

    The incident occurred on Monday night and the people had been providing protection service for a foreign building company working on a road linking southern province Kandahar to western Herat, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal told Xinhua.

    Andiwal did not identify the nationality of the security service company.

    Talking to Xinhua via phone from an unknown location, a Taliban commander Mullah Mohmmad Hashim however said the Taliban had abducted six policemen and beheaded another one who was trying to defend himself during the action.

    The Taliban, removed from power by the U.S. invasion in late 2001, has waged insurgency against Afghan administration and the international troops deployed in the country.

    Rising militancy-related violent incidents have killed over 5,700 people so far this year in the war-torn country.