In November 2018, it was revealed to the outside world that 40 houses in Qazil Abad, an immediate suburb of Mazar-i-Sharif, used unexploded Soviet Grad surface-to-surface rockets as construction materials. As a result, several people were killed and wounded from a few explosions over the years. These rockets, left behind by the Soviet Army in 1989 at the end of the Soviet–Afghan War, were used as cheap building materials by the poor residents of the village. It was estimated that over 400 rockets were incorporated into the village as wall and ceiling beams, door-stoppers, and even a footbridges used by children. When the outside world discovered this fact, the Danish demining group of the Danish Refugee Council visited the village and, after asking the residents, began demining and repairing the buildings, safely removing and disposing of the rockets through controlled detonation at the border with Uzbekistan.