Indian envoy to meet stranded woman in Pakistan

New Delhi: India’s envoy to Pakistan will meet the hearing-and-speech-impaired Indian woman stranded in Pakistan for at least 15 years, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Tuesday.

“Indian High Commissioner T.C.A. Raghavan is reaching Karachi and will meet Geeta today (Tuesday),” Sushma Swaraj tweeted.

On Monday, the minister said she had asked Raghavan to pursue the case of Geeta, who was spotted in 2003 by Pakistan Rangers in Lahore after she strayed across the border. She was then aged 11.

The girl was handed over to Edhi Foundation, a social welfare body in Pakistan and has been living with them ever since.

Pakistani human rights activist Ansar Burney has called upon Bollywood star Salman Khan to help in locating the woman’s parents in India and replicate his ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ role in real life.

The director of ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’, Kabir Khan, has offered Burney whatever help he can.

Burney travelled to India in October 2012 with photographs of the young woman but was unable to make any progress. Bilquis Edhi, who runs the Edhi Foundation, has named her Geeta.

Burney said on Monday: “Geeta alias Guddy may be from Jharkhand or Telangana. Geeta remembers number 193, and says she has seven brothers and four sisters.”