Afghan police have begun a crackdown on private security guards carrying guns in Kabul, paralysing foreign aid and other organisations whose rules oblige them to travel with armed escorts. The Interior Ministry has also detained four foreign employees of two security companies for several days, including two British citizens who were released on Saturday but still have charges pending against them, The Times has learnt.

A French citizen and a Nepalese former Gurkha are thought still to be in custody after being detained, like their two British colleagues, on suspicion of carrying unlicensed firearms.

The Government says that it is trying to control illegal weapons and improve the regulation of an industry that has grown from nothing in 2001 to at least 60 companies employing almost 30,000 people, including up to 10,000 foreigners.

Industry insiders say that elements of the police are trying to cripple foreign firms and drive their clients to Afghan firms with links to the Interior Ministry or other parts of the Government. ASG, one of the biggest Afghan private security companies, is owned by a cousin of President Karzai.

Others suggest that some government officials are suspicious of private business in general and want to renationalise the entire security industry. Either way, the issue threatens to disrupt international civilian and military operations in Afghanistan, where private security companies even guard food and drink supplies for military bases.

“For a long time this has been seen as a private sector problem and, as much as people felt sorry for us, they didn’t want to get involved,” an industry source said. “But if it affects us, it affects our clients. The people who suffer in the end will be the people of Afghanistan.”

The Government has been putting pressure on the industry since last year, when it scrapped its old licensing regime and started drawing up new regulations, which among other things raised the licence price from $10,000 (£5,000) to $120,000. The new regulations were approved by Cabinet last month, but have not yet been through parliament, leaving many security companies in a legal limbo.

“It’s all very confusing,” another industry insider said. “The problem is that some people in the police and Government are connected to the dodgier local security firms.”

The latest blow came on Friday, when a local television station reported that police planned to search all private security guards and arrest anyone found carrying a firearm. Although that plan has not been confirmed officially, private security companies have taken it seriously because of the recent arrests, and some have decided to stop carrying firearms altogether. That has forced some of their clients to halt operations, because their security regulations insist that they be escorted by armed guards.

They are believed to include USAid, the US Government aid agency, and Bearing Point, a consultancy linked to the World Bank that advises the Afghan Finance Ministry. Neither organisation was available for comment. “It has started to have an impact on our clients and some have ceased operations – and these are not small operations, they are big players,” one of the industry sources said.

Many aid workers and other foreigners had already had their movements limited by curfews or “lockdowns” introduced after the Taleban attacked the Serena Hotel in Kabul last month.

Zamarai Bashary, an Interior Ministry spokesman, denied that a blanket ban on armed guards had been introduced but admitted that a crackdown had begun and several arrests had been made. “We have arrested a number of people – some foreigners, some Afghans – who were carrying weapons with no licence under the name of private security companies. These people have to comply with our laws and regulations, otherwise they damage the security situation rather than helping it.” He declined to identify those arrested.

Sources told The Times that they included two British and two Afghan employees of Blue Hackle – a British private security company – and that they were detained in Kabul on January 27. The Afghans are thought to have been freed yesterday. The British Embassy in Kabul declined to comment.

Blue Hackle said: “We are of course delighted that our employees have been released, but sensitivity is obviously very high and it would be inappropriate to comment at this stage.” The Frenchman and the Nepalese are thought to work for Global, another large security company whose clients include USAid.

Global staff were not immediately available for comment.

Growing concern

60: private security companies (PSCs) are currently working in Afghanistan

20: of these are owned and run by Afghans

30,000: security personnel are employed by all PSCs across the country

5,000: of these personnel are Westerners 5,000 are nonAfghans. Many of these are from Turkey, Pakistan, India and Nepal

17: of the PSCs are UK-owned

43,750: handguns, rifles, machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades are in the arsenals of PSCs

3.5: weapons for each employee

6,000: personnel are employed by the two largest US companies, Blackwater and DynCorp 500 average daily pay, in US dollars, for international PSC staff

Source: Swisspeace; Afghan PSCs Association

Times Recommends

• Both sides blame US for worsening relations
• Stieg Larsson: losing the plot over his cash
• Odd creature paralysed by incompatible parts