Process on to bring back Indian woman from Pakistan: Sushma Swaraj

As the Government of India begins the arduous task of locating her family, Geeta, who landed in Karachi after accidentally crossing over the border, is helping with pointers – she scribbles names of her siblings and draws pictures of the neighbourhood she grew up in – hoping something would lead to her family. “We will bring Geeta back to India“, Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted on Tuesday.

“We are completing the necessary formalities to bring Gita back to India”, she tweeted.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has appealed to the Chief Ministers of Punjab, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh to verify the claims of the four families from these states which say that Geeta, the speech- and hearing-impaired Indian woman stuck in Pakistan for more than a decade, is their long-lost daughter.

“Geeta conveyed to Indian High Commissioner by gestures that they are seven brothers and sisters”.

She said that a few days later, Savita went missing and a report was also lodged with the police station concerned, Ganesh said. Then she wrote down “We are completing the necessary formalities to bring Geeta back to India”.

The couple, Rajesh Kumar and Ram Dulari, conveyed to Hindustan Times through their son, Raju, 14, that the girl being raised by Edhi Foundation in Karachi is their daughter Pooja, who they fondly used to call Guddi. She said her parents were not from Bihar, instead from Jharkhand, and her mother wore sarees not Punjabi suits as she was shown on the television.

Pakistani activists have launched a campaign to unite Gita, who has been stranded in the neighbouring country, with her family.

The woman was handed over to the Edhi Foundation, a social welfare organisation in Pakistan.

According to reports, Gita is a vegetarian and has set up a small “mandir” in her room at the Edhi Foundation where she prays to Indian gods and goddesses.

Swaraj also retweeted a drawing posted on Twitter by one Yusra Askari with a caption, “Geeta’s drawing of home – number 193, that as per her is located near a fish pond, paddy fields and a maternity home“.