Chief of the national museum of Afghanistan announced to receive around 600 historical antiquities relating to the history of Afghanistan with the cooperation of United Kingdom. The historical antiquities were stolen and lost during the civil war in Afghanistan and were retrieved in United Kingdom.
Chief of the Afghan national museum Omra Khan Masoodi said the Afghan museum was destroyed during civil war from 1992 to 1996 and the historical antiquities were lost during this period.
Mr. Masoodi further added the historical antiquities were recognized and seized by Heathrow Airport police and were returned back to Afghanistan.
He said the precious items were specified and confirmed by Heathrow Airport Police and were then sent back to Afghanistan.
Omra Khan Masoodi said, “Around 600 various ancient antiquities were seized and recognized by British museum which were sent to Kabul and were received on Sunday from a British military camp.”
He also said around 2000 ancient antiquities belonging to Afghanistan were transported to Afghanistan in February 2009.
This comes as the Ministry of Information and Culture of Afghanistan has been struggling to recover the stolen and lost ancient antiquities of Afghanistan during the past ten years.
A vast of number of the Afghan antiquities have also been recovered and returned back to Afghanistan with the help of UNESCO.
According to Afghan national museum chief Omra Khan Masoodi around 9000 Afghan antiquities have been returned back to Afghanistan since 2007. However a large of number of the ancient Afghan antiquities are still missing and are being kept in museums around the world.
In the meantime a number of the antiquities which were kept in Afghan museum were destroyed during the Taliban regime which they believed were against the Islam.
