KABUL, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Police in the northeast Badakhshan province of Afghanistan discovered a mine placed in a flowerpot on Saturday, spokesman for provincial administration Abdul Marouf Rasikh said.
"It was a remote-control mine, emplaced into a flowerpot in provincial capital Faizabad apparently as part of enemies' conspiracy to disrupt the Nawruz or Afghan new year festival on Sunday," Rasikh said, adding that however, the mine was defused.
Afghans are going to celebrate Nawruz or new year falls on March 21. Taliban militants during its six-year reign collapsed by U.S.-led military invasion in late 2001 had banned Nawruz festival.
