Geeta, Stuck in Pakistan for Over 10 Years, to Return Home Today

Mangalore Today

Karachi 26 Oct, 2015i:  Geeta, a deaf-mute Indian woman forced to live in Pakistan after accidentally crossing the border, will return home today with both governments having completed all formalities.

Geeta, 23, was reportedly just seven or eight years old when she was found sitting alone on the Samjhauta Express by the Pakistan Rangers 15 years ago at the Lahore railway station.

She was adopted by the Edhi Foundation’s Bilquees Edhi and has lived with her in Karachi.

Geeta boarded a Pakistan International Airlines flight at the Karachi airport at 8 am (8:30 IST) today and is expected to arrive in New Delhi at 10:40 am.

"She will be accompanied by me, my father Faisal Edhi, my mother and my grandmother Bilqees Edhi," Fahad Edhi of the Edhi Foundation said.

Mr Edhi said they had received assurances that they would stay in New Delhi until Indian authorities completed DNA tests to confirm the parentage of Geeta.

"We are going with her because she recognised the family in the photograph sent to us by the Indian High Commission as her family. But the DNA tests will confirm this," Mr Edhi said.

He said Indian authorities had also assured them that if the DNA tests were negative, Geeta would be placed in safe custody.

"She has been with us for so many years, she is like a family member and we would like her to stay with us. But obviously she wants to be in her country and with her real family," he said.

He said the Pakistan and Indian governments have completed all formalities for Geeta’s journey back home.

Edhi Foundation’s Anwar Kazmi said that the five people including Faisal Edhi were given visas but only four are going with Geeta. All of them have been declared as state guests.

Geeta has identified her father, step-mother and siblings from a photograph sent to her by the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. The family reportedly lives in Bihar.

Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan, TCA Raghavan, and his wife had visited Geeta in August after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj directed him to meet her and try to locate her family.

 

 

Courtesy:NDTV