PESHAWAR: Nat Geo’s ‘Afghan girl’, Sharbat Gula has been reportedly repatriated to Afghanistan, a private TV channel reported.
The report said that after her punishment for holding an illegal Pakistani computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) ended today. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government wanted to keep Sharbat Gula for some time in Pakistan and tried to stop her deportation, but Gula had expressed her wish to return to Afghanistan.
The Afghan girl, who garnered international fame due to her mesmerizing eyes, was deported to Afghanistan via Torkham border crossing, according to sources. She was handed over by Pakistani security officials to their Afghan counterparts.
Sharbat Gula, who was sentenced to to 15 days imprisonment after being named in the case as one of the thousands of Afghan refugees who managed to dodge Pakistan’s computerised system to get an identity card last year, was released late on Tuesday and was deported to Afghanistan via Torkham border. Four of Gula’s children have already been deported to their native country.
Gula, who fled Afghanistan during Soviet occupation, shot to fame after her photograph as a young refugee was published on the cover of National Geographic magazine back in 1985. Her intense stare at the camera and expressionless face likened her to the famous ‘Mona Lisa’ painting.
Sharbat Gula, who was pictured outside a refugee camp, became a symbol of the human cost of the Soviet War.
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