DHAKA: An Afghan woman immortalized on the cover of National Geographic magazine in 1985 as a green-eyed 12-year-old has been arrested in Pakistan for possessing fake identity papers.
Sharbat Gula could now face a fine and up to 14 years in jail, reports the BBC.
Officials said she was arrested by Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) after a two-year probe in Peshawar, near the Afghan border.
Pakistan recently launched a crackdown against fake IDs.
Gula applied for an identity card in April 2014, using the name Sharbat Bibi. If the fraud allegations are true, she is one of thousands of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan who have tried to dodge its computerised system.
Shahid Ilyas, an official from the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA), said the FIA was seeking three staff who issued Gula’s ID. They have been missing since the alleged fraud was reported.
Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reports that ID cards were issued to Mrs Gula and two men who claimed to be her sons.
A NADRA source told the paper: “They may not be her sons, but this is a common practice among Afghan refugees whereby they list names of non-relatives as their children to obtain documents.”
The celebrated “Afghan girl” picture of Gula was taken in 1984 in a refugee camp in north-west Pakistan, during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. It led to one of the most recognizable magazine covers ever printed.
In 2002, photographer Steve McCurry tracked his subject down after 17 years of searching. At that time, Mrs Gula was living in a remote Afghan village with her baker husband and three daughters.
BDST: 1917 HRS, OCT 26, 2016
BD
