Vehicle laden with weapons seized in Zabul

QALAT (Pajhwok): A vehicle carrying a large amount of weapons was confiscated on Tuesday and its driver arrested in the capital of southern Zabul province, police said.

Zabul police chief Ghulam Sakhi Rogh Lewanai told Pajhwok Afghan News the vehicle was searched at a post on the outskirts of Qalat, the provincial capital.

He said police had prior intelligence reports about the entry of a vehicle carrying weapons from Kabul’s Chahar Asyab district to southern Kandahar province.

Police recovered 79 Kalashnikovs with magazines and detained one person in connection with the seizure, Rogh Lewanai said.

The weapons were seized two weeks after police intercepted a vehicle in the Shahjoy district and recovered 180 Kalashnikovs, two machineguns, five rocket launchers, more than 50 walkie-talkies, thousands of bullets and other ammunitions.

At the time, police had said the weapons were destined for southern Ghazni province from Kandahar. However, they did not say as to which group the weapons belonged to.

Soon after the weapons were seized in Shahjoy, masked gunmen kidnapped 31 bus passengers in the town.

The kidnappers have reportedly demanded the weapons in an exchange for the hostages, but this has not been officially confirmed.

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