External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today said in last few days four families from Punjab, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh have claimed Gita to be their daughter.
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I am requesting the Chief Ministers of these states to verify and report.
“Gita conveyed to Indian High Commissioner by gestures that they’re seven brothers and sisters”.
Sushma had requested the envoy to go to Karachi to meet Gita.
Indian High Commissioner in Pakistan TCA Raghavan and his wife on Tuesday had met Gita following direction from Swaraj and assured her to locate her family as soon as possible. Then she wrote down “Vaishno Devi”, Swaraj tweeted.
“This should further help in locating Gita’s family”, Swaraj said.
Pakistani activists have launched a campaign to unite Gita, who has been stranded in the neighbouring country, with her family.
However, when Geeta was shown pictures of the couple she refused to recognize the couple as her parents.
In 2003, Gita – then 11-years old – was spotted by the Pakistan Rangers in Lahore, after she strayed across the border.
The news channels have been showing the story of Gita drawing a similarity with the reel life character “Munni” of the Bollywood blockbuster “Bajrangi Bhaijaan“.
The woman was handed over to the Edhi Foundation, a social welfare organisation in Pakistan. Bilquis Edhi, who runs the Edhi Foundation, named her Gita.
Kuldeep Singh, a Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) employee who has been assisting pilgrims headed for Golden Temple at the railway station since 1998, said: “Pooja may have boarded a train carrying a Sikh jatha (group of pilgrims) headed for Pakistan”.
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Raghavan also said the aim of his meeting with Geeta is to get as much knowledge as he possibly can with regards to her situation.
