Kabul - Police arrested two suspects in the murder of a provincial female legislator and women's rights activist in southern Afghanistan while bomb blasts in the same region killed three policemen, officials said Thursday.

The arrests were made Wednesday in the murder of Sitara Achikzai, who was gunned down Sunday in Kandahar, the capital of Kandahar province, by four attackers, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Matiullah Qatah, the provincial police chief, also confirmed the arrests took place in Kandahar city and said the men were being questioned by police.

A dual Afghan-German citizen, Achikzai spent years in exile in Germany with her family and returned to Afghanistan after the ouster of the Taliban's ultra-Islamic regime in late 2001.

Taliban militants claimed responsibility for her assassination.

Meanwhile, two police officers were killed and three were wounded Wednesday in a roadside bombing in Kandahar province's Panjwayi district, Qateh said.

A third policeman was killed and another was wounded in a separate roadside bomb blast in neighbouring Helmand province on Thursday, the Interior Ministry said.

Taliban militants are most active in the southern provinces of Kandahar, Helmand and Uruzgan. The militants rely heavily on roadside bombings as part of their campaign to topple the Western-backed Afghan government. (dpa)