Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan T.C.A. Raghavan on Sunday said that Geeta, a deaf-mute Indian girl who accidentally crossed over to Pakistan around 15 years ago, would be flying to New Delhi from Karachi on October 26.
"Geeta will return to India from Karachi on October 26. The Edhi family will also go along with her," Raghavan told ANI here.
"Finding the right institution, where she will be housed, has been our top priority. Once she is back to India, we will begin the DNA tests and go through all the detailed procedure to locate her true family. We have continuously been showing her sets of photos so that she can try and identify her family. Recently, in the last set of photos which we showed to her, she seems to have finally recognised them," Raghavan added.
Raghavan also said that Hindi film 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' brought the people's interest towards Geeta.
"Yes the film like 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' brought the people's interest to Geeta's story. I will give the credit to the foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, who immediately intervened as soon as she was informed about Geeta. She transformed a councillor issue to humanitarian issue. The Edhi family who looked after Geeta for over 10 years had a very important role to play," he added.
"She has been looked after with great affection. The Edhi family is known for their humanitarian causes and they have taken great care of her," Raghavan said.
The Pakistani security forces had found Geeta near the eastern border with India in 2001. Since then, she has been in the care of the Edhi Foundation.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had earlier said the Indian authorities narrowed the search down to three families, who claimed they were Geeta's kin and had sent photographs of them to her for identification.
