The green-eyed Afghan woman whose picture famously made it to the cover of the National Geographic magazine decades ago was arrested on Wednesday by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for living in the country on fraudulent identity papers. 

The haunting image of Sharbat Gula - taken at a refugee camp in Pakistan by photographer Steve McCurry in the 1980s when she was only 12 - became the most famous cover image in the magazine’s history. 

Officials and family members confirmed that Ms Gula, 44, was picked up from Gulistan Colony, situated near the Peshawar cantonment, by the FIA personnel. 

The agency was looking into the issuance of Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs) in her name and in the names of two Afghan men who were mentioned as her sons in the registration forms. 

She was produced before a magistrate who handed her over to the FIA on two-day physical remand. 

A family member said that seven FIA personnel, including a lady officer, drove up to Gula’s house and drove away in two vehicles after taking her into custody. 

He said that Gula was suffering from high blood pressure. Her three daughters and a son were grief-stricken following the arrest of their mother. He said that her husband Rehmat Gul died about four years ago. 

On Oct 20, the FIA had registered an FIR against Gula and three former emplo­yees of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) in the case involving wrongful issuance of CNICs to the woman and two men. 

The FIR, a copy of which is available with Dawn, says that after completion of an inquiry and checking of records it has been established that three employees of Nadra - Palwasha Afridi, Mohsin Ehsan and Emad - fraudulently issued identity cards to three Afghan nationals, Sharbat Gula, Wali Khan and Rauf Khan. 

Palwasha Afridi was granted interim pre-arrest bail by the Peshawar High Court on Tuesday and a hearing for confirming the bail would be held later. 

Shahid Ilyas, a deputy director at Nadra, said that Gula had an Afghan identity card and a passport on which she had travelled abroad to perform Haj. 

He said that the men mentioned in the FIR had yet to be arrested. 

Another FIA official said that Gula managed to get a CNIC from the Nadra’s offices in Hayatabad. “Apparently, the two men are not her sons,” he said. 

Meanwhile, the Afghan consul general in Peshawar, Abdul Waheed Poyan, has approached the authorities concerned to seek Gula’s release.