Afghanistan police have arrested 16 people on charge of involvement in criminal activities in the southern Helmand province over the past 24 hours, the state-run news agency reported on Wednesday.

The alleged criminals have been arrested during series of operations in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah and adjoining areas, Xinhua news agency said quoting Bakhtar news agency's report.

Helmand province with Lashkar Gah as its capital 555 km south of Kabul has been regarded as the hotbed of Taliban militants where the criminal gangs, according to the media outlet, are mostly involved in growing poppy, producing drug and drug trafficking.

Police would spare no efforts to stabilize law and order elsewhere in the conflict-battered country, the official news agency contended.
 (IANS)