Pakistan deports National Geographic’s Afghan girl

Pakistan has deported Sharbat Gula, National Geographic's iconic green-eyed 'Afghan Girl', days after Pakistani authorities temporarily halted her deportation for using fake ID cards to stay here, media reports said today.

Gula was handed over to Afghan security personnel at the Torkham border on Tuesday, after she refused the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government's offer to stay in Pakistan, Dawn reported.

Gula, who was immortalised after her haunting picture taken at a refugee camp in Pakistan in 1985 was carried by the magazine on its cover and became a symbol of her country's wars, was arrested last week from her home here and faces deportation as early as Monday.

She and the Afghan government, in an application submitted to the provincial government, pleaded to allow her to leave Pakistan on completion of her 15-day sentence.

The decision of stopping her deportation was taken on Saturday by the provincial government on humanitarian grounds and as a goodwill gesture towards Afghanistan. However, she refused to stay in Pakistan. 

A special anti-corruption and immigration court here ordered Gula's deportation to Afghanistan on Friday after serving a 15-day jail sentence besides slapping a fine of USD 1,100.