BUDAPEST, Hungary — The skull and several other bones of Hungary’s communist-era leader Janos Kadar and the urn containing his wife’s ashes were stolen from his grave, police said yesterday.

Vandals on Wednesday dug up Kadar’s grave and broke open his casket. Forensic experts arrived at the scene later in the day.

“They have determined that several bones are missing,” police spokesman Oszkar Sas said.

On a memorial to communist leaders near the tomb, someone had written: “Murderer and traitor, you cannot rest in holy ground.”

Kadar was installed as Hungary’s leader after the Soviet army crushed the 1956 revolution, leaving around 2,800 Hungarians and 700 Soviet troops dead. He ruled until 1988 and died in 1989, a few months before the fall of communism.

Prime Minister Gyurcsany – a former communist youth leader who has distanced himself recently from Kadar’s regime — called it an “abominable, inhumane, and cowardly act” that had nothing to do with politics or with Kadar’s political legacy.

Fidesz, the main center-right opposition group, and other political parties across the ideological spectrum also condemned the vandalism. A special 10-member police unit was set up to investigate the crime.