People in Afghanistan are beginning a two-day period of mourning for victims of the communist government of the late 1970s.
The Afghan flag is being flown at half-mast.
The event has been prompted by the Netherlands national prosecutor releasing, as part of a war crimes investigation, nearly 5000 names of Afghans tortured and killed in 1978 and 1979 by Afghan intelligence officials.
Many of those who died were conservative or Islamist opponents of the government that seized power in Afghanistan in 1978 - a year before the Russian invasion.
