Police discover arms, ammunition in south Afghanistan

Kabul, Dec 19 (IANS) Counter-terrorism police have discovered a vast quantity of arms and ammunition over the past three months in south Afghanistan's Helmand province, said a statement of the provincial police headquarters on Thursday.

According to the statement, the confiscated arms and ammunition include five pieces of Kalashnikov, nine hand grenades, a rocket launcher, three break-action weapons, a US-made M16 assault rifle, a Kalakov gun, hundreds of bullets and cartridges, and other illegally preserved military equipment.

Without furnishing details on whether anyone was arrested on charges of keeping the illegal weapons and ammunition, the statement added that the military tools were found during separate operations conducted by counter-terrorism police on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah city, the capital and in the districts of the province.

The Afghan caretaker government, which has collected thousands of arms and ammunition, including battle tanks and artillery since assuming power in August 2021, has vowed to collect arms and ammunition from anyone outside the security entities.

The Afghan counter-terrorism police has been calling upon Afghans to help them in recovering arms and ammunition from the illegal possession of any person. The authorities have been trying to recover and register any arms illegally kept by individuals over the past 20 years, Xinhua news agency reported.

Last month, security personnel in Afghanistan had seized a large amount of weapons and ammunition in the eastern Khost province.

The contraband, which included Kalashnikovs, rocket launchers, PK machine guns, grenades, and an amount of ammunition, was discovered during a series of operations across the province, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a statement issued by the local government.

It mentioned that after the discovery of confiscated weapons and ammunition, six individuals were arrested on charges of keeping illegal weapons and military equipment.

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