Kabul, July 13 (IANS) Police have discovered a huge quantity of arms and ammunition in Afghanistan’s Helmand province over the past three months, with 58 people arrested, Provincial director for counter-criminal activities Mawlawi Abdul Satar Amin said on Sunday.

The weaponry, which included 45 pieces of pistols, seven pieces of Kalashnikovs, nine pieces of other types of assault rifles, hundreds of projectiles and other military equipment, was discovered during operations in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah and several districts over the past three months, the official said.

All the collected arms and ammunition were handed over to the concerned authorities recently, the official asserted.

Police have also taken into custody 58 individuals on charges of involvement in criminal activities such as theft, armed robbery, and murder, the official said, adding police won’t allow anyone to create law and order problems in the province, Xinhua news agency reported.

In similar operations, police also reported the discovery of arms and ammunition, including 13 pieces of AK-47 and six rocket launchers, in Helmand’s neighbouring Kandahar province on Saturday.

On July 5, the counter-terrorism police discovered a similar case, including more than 100 pieces of firearms, during a series of operations in the same province over the past two months, said a statement of the Ministry for Interior Affairs.

The 105 pieces of variety of assault rifles including 14 stocks of Kalashnikovs, 63 pieces of pistols, a rocket propelled grenade, some machineguns and more than 3,000 of bullets of light and heavy weapons have been recovered during operations in different parts of the province, the statement posted on the Ministry’s X account added.

Police have also taken into custody a number of people for carrying arms illegally and handed them over to the judiciary for further investigation, the statement noted, without revealing the exact number of individuals detained back then.

In similar operations, police also discovered and seized six AK-47 assault rifles in the northern Sari Pul province the week before.

–IANS

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