Earlier on Monday, Geeta received a ceremonial welcome by Indian and Pakistan High Commission at the IGI airport.
Advertisement
Attired in red and white Shalwar Kameez, Geeta appeared excited to soon be reunited with her family in India, if the Indian family’s claims turn out to be correct after DNA tests.
The government will now perform a DNA test to determine whether the family, who met with her is actually hers.
Swaraj said: “Whether or not her parents are found, Geeta is our daughter”.
Geeta was just seven or eight years old when she was found sitting alone on the Samjhauta Express by the Pakistan Rangers at the Lahore railway station.
Whatever be the case, unknowingly Bajrangi Bhaijaan has helped a girl to find her parents.
Geeta had been taken care of by a Pakistani NGO called Edhi Foundation during her stay in Pakistan for nearly a decade.
She is believed to have identified a family from the eastern state of Bihar as her own, but at least two other families have claimed that Geeta is their daughter. “Together with Geeta, we have invited five officials of the Edhi Foundation”, Swarup had said on Friday. The members of Edhi foundation are our honored guests and we will show them around Delhi.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj thanked the Edhi foundation founders Abdul Sattar and Bilquis Edhi for taking care of Geeta and safeguarding her religion. “Now it’s time for her to go home”, a rep for the Pakistani charity that cared for Geeta says.
But questions remain, with the Bihar family saying the daughter they lost was married and had a baby when she disappeared.
The Mahto family is not hers, Swaraj said, adding that “still the authorities will do DNA test”.
Advertisement
The girl grinned as was presented bouquets from officials after landing at New Delhi airport escorted by charity workers. According to Faisal Edhi, Geeta had told them through sign language that her father was an elderly man and she had a stepmother and stepsiblings.
