Geeta, the 23-year-old Indian girl who mysteriously ended up in Pakistan over 13 years ago, may return to India soon as the Indian authorities have located her parents in Bihar.
"Geeta successfully identified her sister and four brothers through a photograph sent to Faisal Edhi by the Indian High Commission in Islamabad," Edhi spokesperson Anwar Kazmi told The Express Tribune.
"We will try and connect her to her family through NDTV and send her home soon," Kazmi added.
Geeta, deaf and mute by birth, will be sent to her family after DNA tests, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said. "Geeta will be back in India soon. We have located her family. She will be handed over to them only after the DNA test," she said in a tweet on Thursday.
Geeta will be back in India soon. We have located her family. She will be handed over to them only after the DNA test.#Geeta
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) October 15, 2015
The news about an Indian girl stuck in Pakistan came to light after the release of Salman Khan starrer "Bajrangi Bhaijan" earlier this year, which tells a similar story of a Pakistani girl, 'Munni'.
In the film, Salman Khan takes Munni back to her home in Pakistan, just as Pakistani human rights activist Ansar Burney has been trying to locate Geeta's parents in India for years. His efforts were acknowledged only after "Bajrangi Bhaijan" hit the theatres.
Geeta's story
Geeta, now 23, had reached Lahore in Samjhauta Express when she was around 7 to 8 years old. The Pakistani police found her at the Lahore Railway Station and took her to a shelter home in Lahore, from where she was shifted to other shelter homes until she was finally brought to Edhi Foundation.
At present, she lives with the founder of the welfare group, Abdul Sattar Edhi, and his wife Bilqees Edhi. She was able to let the people at the Foundation know that she was an Indian through gestures and maps.
