With several families coming forward to claim that a deaf and mute Indian girl, stuck in Pakistan for over 14 years, is their daughter, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj took to Twitter on Saturday to urge chief ministers of all states concerned to verify the claims.
Gita in Karachi - During last few days four families from Punjab, Bihar, Jharkhand and UP have claimed Gita as their daughter.— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 8, 2015
I am requesting the Chief Ministers of these states to verify and report.— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 8, 2015
Giving out more details given by the girl to authorities, the External Affairs Minister said that Gita had “conveyed to Indian high commissioner by gestures that they are seven brothers and sisters”
She also conveyed that she had visited a temple with her father. Then she wrote down "Vaishno Devi".— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 8, 2015
Swaraj further said that the government was completing the “necessary formalities to bring Gita back to India”.
This comes days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader tweeted that the Indian High Commissioner would meet the girl and try to help her.
In a reply to a tweet by human rights activist and Pakistan's ex-minister Ansar Burney, Sushma said, "I have asked Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Dr TCA Raghavan to go to Karachi with Mrs Raghavan and meet this girl."
Pakistani activists have launched a campaign to unite Gita, who has been stranded in the neighbouring country, with her family. The renewed push to unite the woman with her parents comes to light soon after the success of Bollywood film 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan'.
The Punjab Rangers brought her to the Edhi Foundation nearly 14 years ago, said Faisal Edhi of the social welfare group. "For years, we have been trying to locate her family or her hometown so that she can return," Faisal said. After spending some time at an Edhi Centre in Lahore, the girl was moved to a Karachi shelter where Bilquis Edhi, a philanthropist known as 'The Mother of Pakistan', named her 'Gita' and became quite attached to the girl.
Gita is believed to have mistakenly crossed into the Pakistani territory as a child. Though she managed to recognise the Indian map on a mobile phone, she has not been successful in conveying any other information to the Edhi staff.
Comments
0 comment