{"id":7657,"date":"2024-05-05T14:37:20","date_gmt":"2024-05-05T11:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/?p=7657"},"modified":"2024-05-05T14:37:36","modified_gmt":"2024-05-05T11:07:36","slug":"top-afghan-diplomat-in-india-quits-after-2m-gold-smuggling-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/?p=7657","title":{"rendered":"Top Afghan diplomat in India quits after $2m gold\u00a0 smuggling reports"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

Afghanistan’s top diplomat in India resigned days\u00a0 after she was reportedly caught by airport\u00a0 authorities smuggling nearly $2 million worth of\u00a0 gold into the country. Zakia Wardak, the Afghan Consul-General in\u00a0 India’s financial capital Mumbai, posted a\u00a0 statement on social media platform X announcing\u00a0 her resignation.\u00a0 Afghanistan’s embassy in New Delhi shut down in\u00a0 November, more than two years after the Taliban\u00a0 returned to power in Kabul following the collapse\u00a0 of the Western-backed government, leaving\u00a0 Wardak as the country’s most senior representative\u00a0 in India. “It is with great regret that I announce my decision\u00a0 to step away from my role at the Consulate and\u00a0 Embassy in India, effective May 5, 2024,” Wardak\u00a0 said Saturday. Indian media reports said Wardak was last month\u00a0 stopped by financial intelligence authorities at\u00a0 Mumbai airport on arrival from Dubai — along with\u00a0 her son — carrying 25 kilograms of gold. She was not arrested because of her diplomatic\u00a0 immunity, the reports said, but the gold — worth\u00a0 around $1.9 million — was confiscated. Wardak’s resignation leaves thousands of Afghan\u00a0 nationals, including students and businessmen,\u00a0 without any consular representation in India.\u00a0 Most foreign nations — including India — do not\u00a0 officially recognise Afghanistan’s Taliban\u00a0 government, but acknowledge them as the de facto\u00a0 ruling authority. In many Afghan missions, diplomats appointed by\u00a0 the former government have refused to cede\u00a0 control of embassy buildings and property to\u00a0 representatives of the Taliban authorities. Wardak said in the statement that she had\u00a0 “encountered numerous personal attacks and\u00a0 defamation” over the past year. Such incidents “have demonstrated the challenges\u00a0 faced by women in Afghan society”, she added,\u00a0 making no explicit reference to the gold\u00a0 allegations. The Taliban authorities have full control of around\u00a0 a dozen Afghan embassies abroad — including in\u00a0 Pakistan, China, Turkey and Iran. Others operate on a hybrid system, with the\u00a0 ambassador gone but embassy staff still carrying\u00a0 out routine consular work such as issuing visas and\u00a0 other documents. Most countries evacuated their missions from\u00a0 Kabul as the Taliban closed in on the Afghan\u00a0 capital in August 2021, although a handful of\u00a0 embassies — including Pakistan, China and Russia – – never shut, and still have ambassadors in Kabul.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Afghanistan’s top diplomat in India resigned days\u00a0 after she was reportedly caught by airport\u00a0 authorities smuggling nearly $2 million worth of\u00a0 gold into the country. Zakia Wardak, the Afghan Consul-General in\u00a0 India’s financial capital Mumbai, posted a\u00a0 statement on social media platform X announcing\u00a0 her resignation.\u00a0 Afghanistan’s embassy in New Delhi shut down in\u00a0 November, more than two years after the Taliban\u00a0 returned to power in Kabul following the collapse\u00a0 of the Western-backed government, leaving\u00a0 Wardak as the country’s most senior representative\u00a0 in India. “It is with great regret that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"yes","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_5980380192037842_108390337697511":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7659,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7657\/revisions\/7659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}