A Pakistani court on Wednesday denied bail to an Afghan woman who was immortalised on the cover of National Geographic magazine in the 1980s and arrested last week on fraud charges, days after the Interior Minister indicated she may soon be released on humanitarian grounds.
Sharbat Gula, who attained fame on the cover of an issue of the National Geographic magazine, has been in police custody since October 26 for allegedly having obtained fake identity papers to stay in Pakistan as a refugee. The special court in Peshawar had reserved its verdict a day earlier and on Wednesday rejected her bail application.