Kabul:  Plane carrying 83 people onboard, crashed in Taliban held Afghanistan’s Ghazni province on Monday. The cause of the crash is not known yet.

Spokesman for the provincial governor Arif Noori, quoted by AFP, said that the plane went down around 1:10 pm local time in Deh Yak district. “At around 1:10 pm (0840 GMT) a plane crashed in Deh Yak district of Ghazni province. The plane is on fire and the villagers are trying to put it out. We still don’t know if it is a military or commercial plane,” he said.

The mountainous Ghazni province sits in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains and is bitterly cold in winter.

Media reports suggest that the plane belonged to the state-owned Ariana Afghan Airlines. The company, however, has not confirmed the crash, saying that the ‘rumours’ are “not true”.

“All the flights of Ariana Afghan Airlines have been completed normally,” a statement on the carrier’s verified Facebook page read.