Twelve employees of the Ministry of Urban Development and Land, including two higher-ranking officials, were arrested by security forces on corruption charges, the Ministry of Interior Affairs said on Saturday.

A source said a total of 14 people have been arrested and some construction projects' engineers are also among them.

The Ministry of Interior Affairs said the officials were arrested on charges of embezzlement and misuse of authority.

The ministry said that the arrested individuals “have embezzled tens of millions of Afghanis in contracts of the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing.”

Meanwhile, 135 officials of highways and 51 personnel of Kabul security gates were removed from their posts as part of the Interior Affairs Ministry’s campaign against extortion on highways, the minister of interior affairs, Massoud Andrabi, said.

This comes as the head of Nangarhar customs office, Hashmatullah Walizai, and five other officials of his department were arrested on corruption charges on Feb. 14.

On February 6, three members of the Meshrano Jirga, the Upper House of Parliament, were sentenced to 10 years and one month in prison each by the primary court of the Anti-Corruption Justice Center on charges of accepting $40,000 in bribe money from customs officials in Balkh, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) said.

Senators Mohammad Anwar Bashliq, Mohammad Azim Qoyash and Liyaqatullah Babakarkhil are accused of asking for $60,000 in bribe money from customs officials in the Hairatan port in the northern province of Balkh, the AGO said. 

They were arrested last year in December while accepting $40,000 in bribe money, according to the AGO.