QALAT, Afghanistan, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) — Police in the southern Zabul province with Qalat as its capital 340 km south of Kabul set ablaze nine and half tons of illicit drug including heroin and hashish on Wednesday, provincial police chief Mir Wais Norzai said Thursday.

“A total of 9.5 tons illicit drug including heroin, hashish and opium poppy have been discovered and seized by police over the past three years and was burned publicly in a ceremony held here on Wednesday evening,” Norzai told Xinhua.

Norzai also added that the government is determined to check poppy cultivation and producing drugs in the province.

In a similar step, authorities in the neighboring Kandahar province set on fire some 30 tons of illicit drugs including poppy and heroin, a day earlier on Tuesday.

Afghanistan’s militancy-hit southern provinces of Kandahar, Helmand and Zabul which regarded as Taliban hotbed have largely been contributing to planting poppy and producing illicit drugs in the country.

The war-torn Afghanistan, reportedly is producing some 90 percent of the raw material used in manufacturing heroin in the world.