Taliban militants have kidnapped 27 peace activists from a highway in Afghanistan's western Farah province, local officials and peace activists said on Wednesday.

Massoud Bakhtawar, the deputy governor of Farah, said the activists were traveling with six cars from Herat to neighbouring Farah on Tuesday evening when their convoy was stopped by the Taliban on a main highway and taken to an unknown location.

Bismillah Watandost, a member of the group, said the activists had planned to travel to various parts of Farah to call for peace and a ceasefire between the warring parties in Afghanistan. The group, People's Peace Movement, was formed to protest violent attacks after a car bomb exploded at a sport stadium in southern Helmand province last year killing 17 civilians and wounding 50 others.