Afghani authorities on Thursday put on display for the media two Britons and two Afghan nationals arrested two days earlier in the capital, Kabul, while driving with unregistered weapons.

Government spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said the four, all employees of a private security company Garda World, were detained in possession of 30 AK-47 assault rifles and the firm would be dissolved.

“Four members of this company (Garda World) were carrying a large number of weapons and ammunitions with no documentation. So that was the reason why the MOI (Ministry of Interior) decided to dissolve these companies. In our primary investigation they were not able to provide us with documentation and on most of these AK47's the serial numbers have been removed, so we consider this a crime, a very serious crime, and after primary investigations we handed them over to the Attorney General's office for further investigations.”

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Garda World security company denied the accusations and said it only had the rifles on a temporary loan to test them, because the firm was looking to purchase new guns.

In August 2010, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he wanted to disband all private security firms operating in the country, because they undermined the Afghan government's authority and diverted resources. The deadline was later pushed back to March 2012.

More than 50 international and Afghan security firms operate in Afghanistan, employing at least 30,000 people.