Taliban has abducted at least 40 passengers and drivers in Dara-e-Soof district in Samangan province, in the north of Afghanistan, provincial police confirmed on Sunday.

The abduction marks the second incident in northern Afghanistan in less than a week. 

The incident occurred in Khushk Dara village in the district at around 10:00am on Sunday morning, said Mohammad Munir Rahimi, spokesman for Samangan police. 

He said Taliban resorted to taking hostage the passengers to convince the drivers to pay them taxes. 

Rahimi said that efforts are underway for safe release of the hostages. 

Mostly high tonnage vehicles are travelling on the road where they transfer coal from Dara-e-Soof coal mines to local markets across Afghanistan. 

Taliban has not yet commented on the incident. 

This comes after the Taliban on Tuesday abducted at least 25 passengers who were travelling from Balkhab district of Sar-e-Pul province to Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of northern Balkh province.

The passengers were on their way to Mazar-e-Sharif City, the capital of Balkh.

No clue is so far available about the fate of the 25 hostages, Rahimi said.