Hasina Safi, the acting minister of Information and Culture, said on Sunday at a gathering that the ministry is registering 5,000 relics from around the country in order to protect them.
“Many sites are vulnerable…Afghanistan has suffered four decades of war,” Safi added.
The ministry prevents smugglers by intercepting them at the country’s international airport and handing over confiscated artifacts to the National Museum.
“More than 500 relics have been handed over to the National Museum in the past three weeks that we have found at the airport,” said Mohammad Rasool Bawari, deputy minister of information and culture.