Kabul: Forty-five Taliban militants on Tuesday gave up fighting and joined the government-backed peace process in Afghanistan’s Saripul province, police said.

“With joining of these people to the peace process, the security situation will be further improved in Saripul province,” Xinhua quoted police chief Habib Gulbahari as saying at a ceremony in provincial capital Saripul, 350 km north of Kabul, to welcome the former militants.

The former militants handed their weapons to police in the ceremony.

Taliban militants are yet to make comments.

Around 4,000 militants have joined the government-backed peace process in the past one year in Afghanistan, government officials said.