Stranded abroad: India springs into action to reunite Geeta with family

Envoy will travel to Karachi to meet the hearing- and speech-impaired girl

ISLAMABAD/ KARACHI:

Two days after The Express Tribune broke the story of a hearing- and speech-impaired Indian girl stranded in a Pakistani shelter, the Indian government sprang into action to reunite her with her family. The 23-year-old girl, Geeta, has been living in an Edhi Foundation shelter in the Mithadar neighbourhood of Karachi for the past 13 years.

The girl is believed to have mistakenly crossed into Pakistani territory. “She was brought to us by the Punjab Rangers some 13 years ago,” Faisal Edhi of the Edhi Foundation told The Express Tribune on Saturday. “For years, we have been trying to locate her family or her hometown.” It was here that Bilquis Edhi, the wife of Abdus Sattar Edhi, named her Geeta.

On Monday, the Indian High Commission in Islamabad approached the Foreign Office to seek access to Geeta. “High Commissioner TCA Raghavan, his wife and some senior officials are planning to travel to Karachi Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning to meet Geeta,” said Balbir Singh, an official of the Indian mission. “We want to travel to Karachi Tuesday but if this is not possible, then we will meet Geeta on Wednesday.”

Earlier in the day, Sushma Swaraj, India’s minister for external affairs, asked Raghavan to visit Geeta. “I have asked Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Dr TCA Raghavan to go to Karachi with Mrs Raghavan and meet this girl,” Swaraj said in response to a tweet from Pakistani rights activist Ansar Burney,

“The high commissioner is likely to visit her day after tomorrow. We have sought permission from the Foreign Office,” Singh told The Express Tribune. “A delegation of officials from the High Commission had earlier visited the girl in 2013 when the media reported the issue. Since she cannot communicate, no progress could be made to locate her family or hometown,” he said, adding that they would once again try to re-unite her with her family.

Geeta can neither speak nor hear, but she can recognise India on the map and points to the states of Jharkhand and then at Telangana. The Express Tribune story about Geeta’s ordeal was picked up by the Indian media and now journalists and rights crusaders from both sides of the border are campaigning to reunite Geeta with her family. Geeta’s story bears striking resemblance with that of Bollywood heartthrob Salman Khan’s flick Bajrangi Bhaijaan. The success of the movie has provided impetus to efforts to trace the family of Geeta.  Activist Ansar Burney, who had raised the issue three years ago during a visit to India, is now spearheading an active Facebook campaign for her.

Faisal Edhi said some Indians have approached him to offer help to read Geeta’s writings.

At the same time, Faisal has been contacting people in Jharkhand and Telangana to find out the whereabouts of the girl’s family. “The day is not far when Geeta will be reunited with her family,” he hoped.


Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th, 2015.