Afghan diplomat accused of smuggling gold into India resigns

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May 6, 2024 / 12:08 PM EDT / AFP The lasting toll of war The lasting toll of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan 05:02 New Delhi —Afghanistan's top diplomat in India resigned days after she was reportedly caught by airport authorities smuggling nearly $2 million worth of gold into the country.
Afghanistan's embassy in New Delhi shut down in November, more than two years after the Taliban returned to power in Kabul following the collapse of the Western-backed government, leaving Wardak as the country's most senior representative in India.
A file photo posted to her X account in 2018 shows Afghan diplomat Zakia Wardak, who resigned on May 5, 2024 from her role as Afghanistan's top diplomat in India after reports claimed she had been caught smuggling almost $2 million worth of gold into the country.
Most countries evacuated their missions from Kabul as the Taliban closed in on the Afghan capital in August 2021, although a handful of embassies — including Pakistan, China and Russia — never shut and still have ambassadors in Kabul.