Magazine cover star arrested in identity papers fraud claim
Print Edition
AN Afghan woman immortalized on a celebrated National Geographic magazine cover as a green-eyed 12-year-old girl was arrested yesterday for living in Pakistan on fraudulent identity papers.
The haunting image of Sharbat Gula, taken in a Pakistan refugee camp by photographer Steve McCurry in the 1980s, became the most famous cover image in the magazine’s history.
She now faces up to 14 years in jail in an episode which highlights the desperate measures many Afghans are willing to take to avoid returning to their war-torn homeland as Pakistan cracks down on undocumented foreigners.
Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency arrested Gula for fraud following a two-year investigation in the northwestern city of Peshawar, the capital of restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.
“FIA arrested Sharbat Gula, an Afghan woman, for obtaining a fake ID card,” Shahid Ilyas, an FIA official, told reporters.
Ilyas said the authorities were also seeking three officials from the National Database Registration Authority found responsible for issuing Pakistan’s national identity card to Gula. They have been at large since the fraud was detected.
He said Gula faces seven to 14 years in prison and a fine of up to US$5,000 if convicted.
Officials say Gula applied for a Pakistani identity card in Peshawar in April 2014, using the name Sharbat Bibi.
She was one of thousands of Afghan refugees who managed to dodge Pakistan’s computerized system to get an identity card.
The original image of Gula was taken in 1984 during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
McCurry later tracked her down, after a 17-year search, to a remote Afghan village in 2002 where she was married and the mother of three daughters.
Pakistan has for decades provided safe haven for Afghans who fled their country after the Soviet invasion of 1979.
The country hosts 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees, according to the UNHCR, making it the third-largest refugee hosting nation in the world.
The agency also estimates a further million unregistered refugees are in the country.
Since 2009, Islamabad has repeatedly pushed back a deadline for their return, but fears are growing that the latest cut-off date in March 2017 will be final.
Meanwhile, refugees increasingly worry about their future in Pakistan as the country cracks down on fake ID cards.
Officials say NADRA has so far reverified 91 million ID cards and detected 60,675 fraudulent cards.
A NADRA official said 2,473 foreigners, mostly Afghans, had voluntarily surrendered ID cards obtained fraudulently.
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