Female Pashtun Lobbyist For Terrorist Taliban
The name of Zakia Wardak, a Pashtun woman and the former Consul General of Afghanistan in Mumbai, India, who was working under the support of the Taliban, has been in the headlines of the Afghan media and even the world in recent days. Her name came to the headlines after Indian media announced the temporary arrest and filing of a case against her on charges of smuggling 25 kilograms of gold.
The newspaper "Times of India" reported at the beginning of this week that Ms. Wardak was intercepted at the Mumbai airport on April 25 and 25 kilograms of gold were seized from her. According to the report of this media, this diplomat from Afghanistan apparently wanted to "smuggle" this amount of gold from the city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to India. Former president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, who happens to be a fellow Pashtun of Ms. Wardak, also resides in the United Arab Emirates.
According to the "Times of India" newspaper, the Indian police did not arrest Ms. Wardak because of her "diplomatic immunity", but they filed a "gold smuggling" case against her, and investigations are ongoing. Ms. Wardak, who worked under the support of the Taliban and considered herself "the only woman in the Taliban's diplomatic apparatus", carried the
How was the gold discovered?
According to the report of "Times of India", Ms. Wardak arrived in Mumbai on April 25th at 5:45 pm local time on an Emirates flight from Dubai. This media has written that the Indian Customs Department had already received information in this regard and for this reason had deployed dozens of agents at the Mumbai airport. This media has added that Ms. Wardak entered this field from the "Green Channel" of the Mumbai airport and due to diplomatic immunity, her luggage was not checked. But just as she was about to leave the airport, Indian customs forces stopped her and her son.
After stopping Ms. Wardak and her son, Indian agents searched their luggage, but nothing was found, making the story a bit more complicated. After that, an Indian female officer took Ms. Wardak to a separate room for a physical search and began her physical search. During the physical inspection, 25 gold bars, weighing one kilogram each, were found from special clothes, hats, leggings, belts and knee pads. The Times of India reported that Indian officials asked Ms. Wardak to show legal ownership documents for the gold, but she was unable to provide any documents. Nothing has been found from Ms. Wardak's son. The value of gold is estimated at 2.2 million dollars.
Who is Zakia Wardak?
Zakia Wardak is originally from Maidan Wardak province in central Afghanistan, but was born in Kabul and studied engineering at Kabul Polytechnic University. She is the daughter of Abdul Ali Wardak, who fought against the former Soviet forces in Afghanistan and is said to have been killed in these wars. Ms. Wardak, who also holds American citizenship, returned to Afghanistan in 2009 and started working in international institutions. She then created different institutions with different titles and expanded his activities.
In 2018, Ms. Wardak was a candidate for Afghanistan's parliamentary elections, but she could not enter the House of Representatives of Afghanistan. Nonetheless, gradually her relations with the sources of power increased. Finally, one of her daughters was appointed by Mohammad Hanif Atmar, a former adviser to the National Security Council of Afghanistan as a consultant.
After Mr. Atmar was appointed as the foreign minister of Afghanistan, Ms. Wardak was appointed as the consul general of Afghanistan in Mumbai in 2020, and she remained in this position since then until the "gold smuggling" case was filed.
In the Footsteps of the husband
Zakia Wardak is the wife of Sirajuddin Wardak, who is said to have been killed in a traffic accident in Afghanistan in 2009. In 1997, when the Taliban had just dominated Afghanistan for the first time and defeated the Mujahideen government led by Burhanuddin Rabbani, Sirajuddin Wardak had tried to take control of the Afghan embassy in Washington on behalf of the Taliban.
According to a Washington Post report, at the time when the Mujahideen government led by Burhanuddin Rabbani was still considered the legitimate and legal government of Afghanistan and approved by the United Nations, Yar Mohammad Mohabbatein was the chargé d'affaires of the Afghan embassy in Washington and Sirajuddin Wardak worked as a deputy.
According to this media report, after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, Sirajuddin Wardak tried to remove Yar Mohammad Mohabbatein, who represented the Mujahideen government, and took control of the Afghan embassy in Washington on behalf of the Taliban. This conflict was dragging the US government into this conflict and finally the US decides to temporarily block the Afghan embassy in Washington.
After the fall of the first Taliban regime, Sirajuddin Wardak returned to Kabul with his wife, Zakia Wardak, and finally died in a traffic accident in 2009, but his wife claims that he was killed.
Zakia Wardak finally closed the country's embassy in Delhi and surrendered the property to the Indian government in October of 2023 due to the pressure of the Taliban and the non-cooperation of the Indian government in extending the visas of the diplomats of the former Afghan government. She announced that together with Mohammad Ibrahim Khel, she will assume the responsibility of this embassy and advance its affairs in interaction with the Taliban.
In this way, Ms. Wardak became the only woman in the Afghan diplomatic system who supported the Taliban, while the Taliban imposed extensive restrictions on women inside Afghanistan and took away their right to education, work and even recreation.
Abbas Stanikzai, the political deputy of the Taliban's foreign ministry, also confirmed that the Afghan embassy in Delhi, consulates in Mumbai and Hyderabad are operating under the support of this group.
Resignation without referring to the accusation of gold smuggling
After the publication of reports about the filing of a case against Zakia Wardak on charges of "gold smuggling", she resigned from her position at the Afghan consulate in Mumbai and the Afghan embassy in Delhi without mentioning the issue.
In her resignation letter, she claimed: "Over the years, I have faced defamation against myself and my family members. These attacks, which seem to be organized, have had a severe impact on my effectiveness in my role and express the many challenges that women who want change and transformation in the Afghan society are struggling with."
Original sources of the article:
زکیه وردک و ماجرای قاچاق ۲۵ کیلوگرام طلا
More on Pashtun lobbyists of Taliban terrorists:
Most famous political lobbyists and advocates of the Taliban in the West
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