Violence claims three lives in Khost

KABUL): Three people have died in separate incidents of violence in the capital of southeastern Khost province, officials said on Monday.

A roadside bomb blast ripped through a car in the Bati Thana area of Khost city on Monday afternoon, killing two occupants, a security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Pajhwok Afghan News. The car was comprehensively destroyed in the blast, he added.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the vehicle was belonging to foreign troops. Four people inside the car were killed in the blast, he said.

Elsewhere in the city, a money changer was killed by unknown gunmen and his body was recovered from a natural stream in the Khoni Khowar area early on Monday, witnesses said.

The dead body floated on waters for a long time, Asadullah, a witness said.

Elsewhere, security forces confiscated arm caches and munitions during separate operations in northern Balkh and Baghlan provinces, officials said on Monday.

The operations were carried out in Dehdad district of Balkh and the Baghlan-i-Markazi district of Baghlan, according to local officials.

Deputy Balkh police chief, Brig. Gen. Abdul Rauf Taj, told a press conference that the arms and munitions were seized during an intelligence-based operation in the Sherabad area on Sunday night. Thousands of bullets and explosives were recovered from a house in the area, he said.

The weapons included 44,000 bullets of different guns, 66,000 empty magazines, 9 pistols, 11 Kalashnikov butts and explosives and others, the police official said.

A man identified as Mohammad Sadiq had been arrested in connection with the arms, he said.

In neighbouring Baghlan, police recovered a number of Pakistan-made pistols and AK-74s from a vehicle on Monday, an official said.

The vehicle was en route to Mazar-i-Sharif from Kabul when it was stopped in the Sharaq area of Baghlan-i-Markazi district during a search, police spokesman, Javed Basharat, said.

The driver was arrested in connection with the arms, the official said, but the driver denied he had any link with the arms.

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