FIA raids residence of Nat Geo's famed Afghan girl
47
PESHAWAR: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has raided the residence of famous Afghan girl Sharbat Bibi in Nauthia Qadeem area of Peshawar, sources at agency said.
The raid was conducted at the address provided by Sharbat Bibi in her National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) form.
A senior member of the investigating team, requesting anonymity, told DawnNews that during the raid Sharbat Bibi was not present at the address provided. However, FIA investigators say they have collected important information regarding the case.
The address provided in the NADRA registration form belongs to Rehmat Gul, husband of Sharbat Bibi, who passed away some years back. Rehmat Gul's brother and other close relatives have been living in the same locality for the past few years, added the investigators.
A FIA official rejected information provided on the NADRA form as fake. Details of the form had claimed that Sharbat Bibi had two sons. He said Sharbat Bibi has two daughters and a two-year-old son.
The official added that relatives present at the given address have refused to recognise two persons listed as her sons in the form.
Read: Pakistan issues CNIC to Nat Geo's famed 'Afghan Girl'
Relatives present at the residence also did not share any further information about Sharbat Bibi's whereabouts, and claimed she had moved to Afghanistan some years ago, an official added.
“We do not think she has moved to Afghanistan, it is possible she may have moved to another address in order to avoid the ongoing investigation,” a senior member of the FIA team added.
“We have interrogated five NADRA officials for allegedly issuing CNIC (Computerised National Identity Card) to Sharbat Bibi and two other men, who had claimed to be her sons,” officials added.
Last year, NADRA issued three CNICs to Sharbat Bibi and two men who claimed to be her sons. Issuance of CNICs were in violation to the rules and procedures of NADRA.
Months later, Nadra’s vigilance department woke up to discover the documents to be fake and ordered cancellation of CNICs of Sharbat and her alleged sons.
An inquiry was launched with NADRA officials under fire for issuing CNICs to foreign nationals without legitimate documentation. When contacted, NADRA officials had refused to comment on the matter.
Sharbat Bibi became known as the 'Afghan girl' when National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry photographed her at the Nasir Bagh refugee camp situated on the edge of Peshawar in 1984, and identified her as Sharbat Gula.
She gained worldwide recognition when her image was featured on the cover of the June 1985 issue of National Geographic Magazine at a time when she was approximately 12 years old.
Read more
On DawnNews
Comments (47) Closed
Jul 13, 2015 05:43pm
Yet another great example of the incompetence of our law enforcement agencies and national database managers!
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 05:48pm
For how long we are going to let the Afghan Nationals abuse Pakistan. It's time for then to head to their sweet home Afghanistan and not work as Indian agents any more. Enough damage is done to the peace and security of Pakistan and the bickering government of Afghanistan should try to facilitate the repatriation of their citizen be it Sharbat Bibi or Soda Baba !!
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 05:49pm
Fame and infamy at play!
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 06:23pm
So what if she got Pakistani CNIC for having lived here all her life!
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 06:32pm
Raid on Sharbat Bibi! But what about officials who are involved in issuing the CNIC's???
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 06:32pm
Afghan refugees who have lived all their lives in Pakistan should be given Pakistani residency/citizenship. Thats what all civilized nations do to refugees. Moreover, these folks are already in Pakistan and are part of the system. So whats the big deal if we simply recognize them?
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 06:36pm
she needs to be free to live an honorable life in Pakistan, she has already suffered a lot. Islam teaches us universal brotherhood and being good to neighbors we have example of the muhajirin and ansar where answer provided their own homes, if we cant do that at least her live in peace. Also as she has been living in Pakistan for such a long time she should have Pakistani nationality by now. Even the west gives their so called precious passports after a few years of residency.
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 06:47pm
Leave her alone. Go catch some real crooks
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 07:22pm
feeling sad hearing news. the afghans who have lived their entire life in this country should be given citizenship, provided they abandon their afghan citizenship. in this way they can lead a normal and productive life.
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 07:24pm
catch the officials responsible to issue Pakistani ID cards to foreigners. Many of the drug traffickers were Afghan nationals who use Pakistani passport and defamed us. We get special treatment on all international airports.
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 07:29pm
@musaji
People have lived all their lives in some middle east countries and never given any kind of permanent residency.
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 07:30pm
Pakistanis come to Europe and expect to get permanent stay here within a few years, this poor woman has stayed in Pakistan for decades yet she is now being persecuted by the lota brigade...shame on you.
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 07:38pm
When I look at the comments here or in any news in Pakistan related to Afghans in Pakistan, I feel sad in seeing that we are no different than many other countries who treat pakistanis bad. And when someone treats us the same way as we treat the afghans, we call them racists!
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 07:51pm
most of the afghans are involved in terrorist and criminal activities. send them back to their country and they can continue their criminal activities in afghanistan!
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 07:52pm
What's the investigation all about. You didn't make that clear.
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 07:54pm
What FIA need to look at is the drug dealers caught oversees holding Pakistani passports. This investigation will lead you to not only NADRA corruption but also those who facilitated these people to obtain the identity card. Just try it.
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 08:04pm
They are left to raid the homes of people like Sharbat Bibi.
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 08:12pm
Giving the leniency and vulnerabilities in our system, God knows how many such cards have been issued with fake details.
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 08:33pm
Grant her Pakistani Nationality and let her live a respectable life.
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 08:45pm
Harassing poor women.
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 08:46pm
NADRA Officials if found guilty should be given capital punishment as they may even take bribe from terrorists and make CNIC for them.Afghans should go back,they are refugees and now they have a stable democratic government or they can be rehabilitated in some developed country with the help of UN.
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 08:49pm
Many afghan comments can be seen here!
We should seriously deal with the afghan matter on fast track, enough is enough now
Send them where they belong, we took them as refugees not as citizens, if they want to live here as citizens then first of all go back to your beloved country and then apply for citizenship
On any given day and on any incident they curse Pakistan yet eat our bread and butter!
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 08:50pm
She was photographed at refugee camp situated on the edge of Peshawar in 1984. It is more than 30 years ago, if my arithmatic is OK. Why someone is asking the authentication of her papaer after all these years? The interesting information is: "...Nadra’s vigilance department woke up to discover the documents to be fake..." Well they took their time to wake up and have probably gone to sleep again. How can we combat the burning problems of terrorism, if our vigilance is so slow and inefficient?
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 08:51pm
@Zaheer brother you are 100% right.. what about them who born here in pakistan btw i am one of them and i dont want to go to afghanistan i born here and like to live here i love pakistan :)
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 08:52pm
@Amir i agree
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 08:55pm
i born here in pakistan but i dont have cnic i am 28 i dont want to goto afghanistan i want to live here in pakistan i love pakistan ... can somebody tell me whats my mistake if i want to live here coz i born here this is my country my soil
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 09:00pm
@musaji Try doing that in another country. Just because you live in a country doesn't mean you are a citizen of that country no matter how long your stay might be. Your logic would make all of Pakistan move to USA and hope to become citizens one day.
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 09:04pm
@pakistani Now this type of argument seems to be common everywhere in the world: for the US, they are always Mexicans (some fourty years ago all criminals were "Italians"); in Germany the are Romanians (some twenty years ago all criminals were "Turks"); In Italy they are mostly "Serbs". In the UK they are Pakistanis. The list can be very long but the reason is always the same: every nation picks up someone else to blame the proper defect. The major cause of criminality in our country is caused by our own people and the worst part of it is related to some political party. Please bring your house in order before blaming others. Note: I am not an Afgahn refugee, I am a Pakistani and am trying to be objective.
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 09:21pm
@musaji ........these refugees in turn are agents of mischief in pakistan.The information that she gave of her family is doubtful.
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 09:23pm
@pathanoo Its obvious from the story that she is bring in illegal afghans and making out they are her sons, that's what the investigation is about I think.
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 09:49pm
"Those who are born here" is not our matter...
sorry to say that but we never asked their parents to give births here, they produced so many people, they are living on our resources yet we only got crimes in return!
if they are unwilling to leave then use force..
we took them here as refugees because of pity but they have totally ruined our society !
We were not like this... just look are the figures of crimes only after five years they came here...
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 09:56pm
@musaji Pakistan should not provide valuable space to people who are not loyal to it.
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 10:57pm
NADRA is sitting on my son's smart card application fro the last 7 months because of a mistake NADRA software can not amend... My registered online complains are not answered and the NADRA staff overseas blaming the customer. Does anyone knows who in the NADRA department can help resolve my issue?
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 11:25pm
More than lac CNICs have been issued to Afghani refugees in Balochistan but sadly no one questions it.
Recommend
0
Jul 13, 2015 11:49pm
Pakistan Authorities should arrest real afghani terrorists in Pakistan not women!!
Recommend
0
Jul 14, 2015 12:30am
why singling her out- it was NADRA'S incompetence and those officials responsible should be in the firing line. They have a huge responsibility with the nation which they failed to keep for their own selfish monetary gains.
Recommend
0
Jul 14, 2015 01:33am
what a waste of resources...leave her alone, she's a harmless person and has lived her life in Pakistan...why can't the FIA spend their resources and money on people who are plundering Pakistan.
Recommend
0
Jul 14, 2015 02:00am
Leave this lady alone, she has suffered enough. Just tell her to give names of corrupt officials who gave her Pak NIC, but leave her alone.
Recommend
0
Jul 14, 2015 02:06am
Leave the poor woman alone! Hasnt the fia anything better to do?
Recommend
0
Jul 14, 2015 02:33am
NADRA will make ID for cash. Simple. And why not? Everybody is making hay while the sun shines and why not NADRA people. Governance has collapsed and cannot be restored by boots, bayonets and bullets. It requires institution building and starts with hiring competent and honest people at the very top. Give them support and institutions will start improving.
Recommend
0
Jul 14, 2015 03:13am
Some of the commentators here sound like Donald Trump who calls all Mexicans in the US criminals : (( even though many parts of the US were once under Spanish rule before it acceded and gained independence as Mexico.
The situation for refugees fleeing from war torn Afghanistan have many family members who live on both sides of the border, and thus for Pakhtun tribal families, they don't think of their Afghan family members as
"outsiders." In the case of Sharbat Bibi, it's a sad testament to NADRA that instead of focusing on the genuine terrorists, they are making a mountain out of a molehill re a simple case of address change, etc. which should have been cleared up over two decades ago.
If there's any illegal activity here, then investigate instead of making baseless accusations against some poor female who only needed respite from a deadly war.
Recommend
0
Jul 14, 2015 03:22am
No mention of her any crimes in article. stop harassing a poor woman. Surprise to know-it's crime to obtain Pakistan ID for a person lwho has lived all of her life in Pakistan.
Recommend
0
Jul 14, 2015 04:23am
Well Done!
Recommend
0
Jul 14, 2015 05:18am
Issuance of CNICs to Non-Pakistanis should be thoroughly investigated and culprits be punished for this treacherous act.
Recommend
0
Jul 14, 2015 06:10am
NADRA is tainted with corruption. Otherwise how an Afghan citizen can get Pak NICN & passport.
Recommend
0
Jul 14, 2015 03:25pm
I am an afghani. I thank Pakistan for their help by accepting our people during a time of need. There are good and bad in every country. Today I know a lot of good afghanis and a lot of good Pakistanis. The only solution here is "love" but majority here are showing anger regarding this issue.
My dear brothers and sisters. Both of our countries have been having issues and need improvements. Both our countries are Muslim. We need to unite, we need to collaborate, we need to build together, work together, we need to understand each other by having good faith and trust in eachother. It is only then that we will be going towards the right path.
As far as sharbat gul. She should be living a great life in any country she wants, after her photo has become a huge piece of art. Instead the photographer is enjoying his life and making his allowance. I want to see everyone prosper, Muslim , Jew, Christian, Hindu...My only advice is to learn about eachother. Learn to believe in one another.
Recommend
0
Jul 14, 2015 03:51pm
world knows about her but our agencies dont
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_Girl
Recommend
0
