New Delhi: Indian External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj has directed the Indian envoy in Pakistan to look into the case of a hearing and speech impaired Indian woman who has been stranded in Pakistan for at least 15 years.
In a post on Twitter on Monday, Swaraj said: “I have asked Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Dr TCA Raghavan to go to Karachi with Mrs Raghavan and meet this girl.” She was responding to a tweet from leading rights activist and Pakistan’s former human rights minister Ansar Burney, who has launched a fresh campaign to reunite the woman with her family in India.
Burney, who will be in India in September to meet the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, acknowledged the fresh effort to find the woman’s parents was because of the success of the film in both countries.
Burney jokingly said it seemed the Bollywood film was inspired by his efforts in 2012 to find Geeta’s family during a visit to India.
"I went to India three years ago with photos and video of Geeta to try and find her family but I couldn’t trace any leads. My trust has started a cross-border campaign to try and find Geeta's relatives so that she can be handed over to them," Burney said.
Geeta now lives with Bilqees Edhi, the wife of Abdul Sattar Edhi, founder of Edhi Foundation, Pakistan’s largest and best-known charity.
