Sharbat Gula, the ‘Afghan Girl’ who appeared on the cover of a 1985 edition of National Geographic magazine, waits ahead of a court hearing in Peshawar. PHOTO: AFP
PESHAWAR: An Afghan woman immortalised on a celebrated National Geographic magazine cover as a green-eyed 12-year-old girl was arrested on Wednesday for living in Pakistan on fraudulent identity papers.
NatGeo photographer Steve McCurry had shot Sharbat Gula, dubbed ‘Afghan Mona Lisa’, at a refugee camp in 1984 in Nasir Bagh locality, on the outskirts of Peshawar. The haunting image became the most famous cover image in the history of NatGeo magazine.
McCurry later tracked her down, after a 17-year search, to a remote Afghan village in 2002 where she was married to a baker, named Rahmat Gul, and the mother of three daughters.
A special team of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested Gula, now 46, from Nauthia, the old quarters of Peshawar, following a two-year investigation on her and her husband, who has absconded.
The team also recovered a fraudulently acquired Pakistani computerised national identity card (CNIC) and an Afghan identity card from her possession. Investigators, who have uncovered thousands of fraud cases over the last decade, launched a probe into her application shortly after she procured the CNIC.
According to the FIR, the CNIC identifies her as Sharbat Bibi, a resident of Talab Road, Nauthia Qadeem, Mohalla Mast Gul, Peshawar. Her date of birth is mentioned as 1-1-1969.
According to an official, the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) was alerted by Gula’s striking resemblance with the NatGeo girl. In subsequent investigation it transpired that NADRA had issued a CNIC to the same Afghan woman, who had shed her burqa but didn’t change her first name.
“The fraud was detected when Gula attempted to help two other Afghan refugees get CNICs by calling them as her sons,” an FIA official told The Express Tribune.
Later an FIR was registered against Gula and three NADRA employees Palwasha Afridi, Mohsin Ahsan and Amad who had helped her get Pakistani identity by approving her application.
Gula was presented before a judicial magistrate where the FIA requested for her two-day physical remand which was granted. She will be produced before the magistrate after completion of the remand.
If convicted, Gula faces seven to 14 years in prison and a fine of $3,000-$5,000, according to FIA official Shahid Ilyas. In reality, she is unlikely to serve such a harsh sentence — many Afghans who have been convicted in similar cases have been deported before they could be sent to prison.
Thousands of Afghan refugees have managed to dodge Pakistan's computerised system to get an identity card.
Meanwhile, Afghan Ambassador in Pakistan Omar Zakhilwal vowed to secure Gula’s release. “I have received information through the media that the Pakistani police have arrested the most famous face in Afghanistan that attracted the attention of the international community,” Zakhilwal said.
“I am confident that she would not only be released as soon as possible but would be repatriated to the country with her family with honour and dignity," Zakhilwal said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 27th, 2016.
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