VHP leader Pravin Togadia on Tuesday lauded External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for the return to India of Geeta, a deaf-and-mute woman after being stranded in Pakistan for years.
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“The family members were happy initially, but the moment she failed to recognise them they were saddened”.
The External Ministry had asked AIIMS to collect samples for DNA test to confirm if Janardhan Mahato, who claims that Geeta is his first born Heera, is indeed her father. “They said Geeta had been married and had left her husbands’ home. She is a daughter of India and we will take care of her”. Geeta will be kept in this institution till her real family is found. Geeta, who wandered over one of the world’s most militarised borders, arrived home on Monday but failed to recognise the family she has identified from photographs.
She was reportedly just 7 or 8 years old when she was found sitting alone on the Samjhauta Express by the Pakistan Rangers 15 years ago at the Lahore railway station * She was adopted by the Edhi Foundation’s Bilquees Edhi and lived with her in Karachi.
Swaraj will brief the media at 3 p.m. today with details about Geeta’s arrival. In the chambers of external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, where Mahato family was made to sit face-to-face, Geeta didn’t make any emotional bonding and preferred to stay with Indore based sign language expert Monika Punjabi.
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“Through Radio Pakistan programme we have saved around 40,000 children”. He said that Geeta must have been confused right now and she was intended once after settling down. “She used to ask us to take her to take her to a temple”, she said. “I am happy that Geeta has come back to her nation”, Bilquis said.
