Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted this morning on the 23-year-old, who was given the name “Geeta”by a Pakistani social worker. The girl is deaf and mute.
I have asked Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Dr TCA Raghavan to go to Karachi with Mrs Raghavan and meet this girl. @AnsarBurney
– Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 3, 2015
A Facebook page has been set up for her. “Please Help find Geeta’s Home. An Indian girl stranded in Pakistan,” it says.
Geeta was nine when she crossed into Pakistan territory. Personnel of the Punjab Rangers took her to a social welfare organisation, the Edhi Foundation, in Lahore.
“For years, we have been trying to locate her family or her hometown so that she can return,” the organisation’s Faisal Edhi has been quoted as saying.
The young woman can just recognise the Indian map but she has not been able to give any information on where she is from. A separate prayer room has been set up at the shelter home with posters of Hindu deities like Ganesha.
Geeta has been able to convey that she has 11 siblings, including four sisters.
Faisal Edhi said that her writings were shown to people but “nothing has come out of it.” Geeta is also known to write “193” repeatedly; officials believe it could be her house number.
The success of the film ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’, has revived focus on efforts to return Geeta to her home in India.
Former Pakistan minister and rights activist Ansar Burney, who took up Geeta’s cause three years ago during a visit to India, has started a Facebook campaign.
The Salman Khan movie revolves around a speech-impaired girl from Pakistan who finds herself in India with no way to return home. An Indian man then decides to take her to her family in Pakistan.
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