Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) branch raided a house in Nauthia, Peshawar, late on Tuesday and arrested an Afghan refugee Sharbat Gula, known for her childhood photograph that became the National Geographic magazine’s photo of the century, for having an illegal Pakistani Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC).

An FIA official, requesting anonymity told this scribe that officials of the force raided a house in Gulistan Colony, Nauthia Jadeed in Peshawar. After getting a tip-off about the presence of Sharbat Gula. She is accused of making an illegal CNIC a few years back to avoid deportation to Afghanistan.

The official added that the FIA were investigating the case in which they had already arrested three National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) officials for allegedly issuing her a Pakistani computerised identity card.

These included Mohsin Ihsan, a serving Assistant Commissioner in the Income Tax department, Palwasha Afridi, Assistant Director NADRA and Imad Khan and Deputy Assistant Director NADRA. for their alleged role in getting fake CNICs made for many Afghan refugees in return for considerable bribes.

All the three mentioned persons have acquired bail before arrest (BBA) and were to appear in the court on Friday, October 28. It was learnt that NADRA had already terminated the three officers as they were allegedly found involved in issuing hundreds of CNICs to Afghan nationals living in Pakistan. However, Mohsin Ihsan had resigned from NADRA and got a new job in the income tax department after his resignation.

Inspector Imtiaz Ali, Investigation Officer in the case informed Daily Times, that the agency was investigating the case for over a year as a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against Sharbat Gula for fraudulently acquiring a CNIC. “An inquiry conducted for almost one year found out that the Afghan lady was able to get a CNIC in 2012 after getting access to the group in NADRA,” he added.

A case was registered against Sharbat Gula a week ago as the FIA tried to locate her but she was said to have returned to Afghanistan. “We kept an eye on the house we knew belonged to her and only recently found out that she had returned from Afghanistan. She has Afghan travel documents as well,” Imtiaz Ali added.

Sharbat Gula got famous for a photograph of her that renowned American photojournalist Steve McCurry shot at a tented school in a refugee camp near Peshawar in the 1983. The photograph not only earned “The Photo of the Century” Award by the “National Geographic” magazine but also changed the life of Sharbat Gula and her family as the National Geographic Channel made a documentary about her life in 2003.

Steve McCurry’s sister, Bonnie McCurry V’Soske, told Daily Times that she and Steve were concerned for Sharbat Gula and wanted to help her in legal matters to let her reunite with her family. The poor lady had suffered a lot. She will soon be going back to Afghanistan and we want her to go back happily without going through yet another difficulty like this new development,” she said.

Sharbat Gula, a widowed mother of three daughters and one minor son had been living in Pakistan with her husband since her ‘discovery’ as the ‘Girl with the Haunting Eyes’.

Her husband Rehmat Gul, a baker by profession died in 2013 after failing to recover from Hepatitis C. Earlier that year, her eldest daughter died after developing complications in the delivery of her first child.

Her 15-year old daughter, who did not wish to be named, told this scribe that the police raided their home at night and took her mother away. “I, my two younger sisters and our four-year old brother could not sleep all night. We have been weeping and waiting for our mother to return but there is no one to help us,” she said.

Sharbat Gula was presented to a local magistrate in Peshawar who sent her on a 14-day remand. She was sent to a judicial lockup where she will be interrogated by the FIA officials for acquiring a CNIC by illegal means.