Geeta comes home: Bollywood movie helps lost Indian girl return from Pakistan after 15 years
Almost 15 years ago, a young speech and listening to impaired Indian lady named Geeta accidentally strayed into the Pakistani metropolis of Lahore after wandering throughout the heavily-militarized India-Pakistan border. Now 23, she has returned to India — and probably her family — in a novel homecoming nowadays.
A daughter returns dwelling. Geeta arrives in New Delhi accompanied with the aid of members of Edhi Groundwork %twitter.com/v0CIu7RWmc
— Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) October 26, 2015
After being stuck without any leads for years, her case got here below the spotlight a few months ago, after the release of the Bollywood movie Bajrangi Bhaijaan across India and Pakistan in July. Mirroring Geeta’s existence, the film narrated the story of a mute Pakistani woman who wanders across the border to India and is reunited with her household with the lend a hand of an Indian played by using famous person Salman Khan. Geeta herself is keen on the film, and has watched it more than once. Following fashionable protection of her story, the Indian executive promised to convey Geeta home as quickly as imaginable.
“Geeta is a daughter of India, and we will be bringing her back very quickly.” You Can hear the full briefing here http://t.co/Z13xyP80hr
— Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) October 15, 2015
Geeta can be again in India soon. We Have situated her household. She might be surpassed over to them most effective after the DNA check.#Geeta
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) October 15, 2015
Geeta identified her family through a picture sent by way of the Indian Commission in Karachi.
Image: Fareed Khan/Related Press
Geeta, who was best seven or eight years old when bought lost, had been discovered by means of Pakistani security forces close to the border. Within The absence of any identification paperwork, she used to be exceeded over to a safe haven in Karachi run by way of the charitable Edhi Foundation, the place she has been living because then. Unable to communicate her tackle or determine her domestic, she had been christened Geeta by using the charity’s owners.
Geeta waves prior to her departure from the global airport in Karachi.
Picture: Shakil Adil/Related Press
After seeing her story on TV, a family from the japanese state of Bihar claimed that Geeta was once their daughter and had been misplaced in an even Within The city of Ludhiana in Punjab, a state which borders Pakistan. In flip, Geeta had recognized her lengthy-misplaced loved ones via photographs despatched across the border. Nonetheless a number of questions stay — the domestic in query have said that their misplaced daughter used to be married when she disappeared, however Geeta has mentioned that she has by no means been married. For The Reason That announcement, several different families have additionally claimed Geeta as their daughter. Indian authorities will behavior a DNA take a look at ahead of handing over Geeta with her domestic, but when the implications don’t match she will probably be placed in a “appropriate establishment”.
Geeta at the charitable Edhi Groundwork in Karachi, the place she had lived for over a decade.
Image: Fareed Khan/Associated Press
For now, Geeta is back in India. On her wishlist is a chance to satisfy Bajrangi Bhaijaan actor Salman Khan even earlier than she will get to peer her folks, and a need to peer the movie dubbed in sign language.
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