GROZNY, February 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Construction workers unearthed mutilated bodies of four Chechen men on Friday, February 7, as they dug through the wreckage of the republic's war-ravaged capital Grozny, Chechen Interior Ministry officials said.

The four young men's heads were covered in plastic bags and their hands tied behind their backs with barbed wire, the Chechen officials confirmed.

They said the four bore signs of having been tortured before being executed by machinegun fire, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The bodies were discovered in the central Oktyabrsky region of Grozny, which was the site of a strong Chechen resistance when Russian troops stormed the capital in the early weeks of the current 40-month conflict.

It was not immediately clear when the four Chechens were killed.

Russian authorities refused to comment on the discovery when contacted by AFP, saying they had no direct contact with the Chechen Interior Ministry and were thus unable to confirm the report.

The independence-seeking leadership of Chechnya and human rights groups accuse Russian troops of torturing civilians as well as captured independence-seeking fighters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Chechnya in October 1999, when still serving as prime minister.

In a reported published Tuesday, October 29, the international human rights watch-dog Amnesty International charged that torture, rapes and “disappearances” are common in Russia’s legal “climate of impunity.”

The report’s publication coincides with a major campaign by Amnesty to highlight the discrepancy between the human rights protection enshrined under international and Russian law and the reality of widespread abuse.

The 125-page report, entitled “Russian Federation: denial of justice,” focuses on “specific and serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by Russian law enforcement and security forces,” especially in Chechnya.

Ethnic minorities, particularly Chechens, “have been stereotyped by Russian law enforcement officials as terrorists, drug dealers or other types of criminal,” said the report, which contained a long section on human rights violations in Chechnya.