Nearly 15 years after she accidentally crossed the border, young deaf-mute woman Geeta will arrive in Delhi on Monday to be reunited with her family in India.
Geeta will arrive at the IGI airport in Delhi at 10.20am by Pakistan International Airlines Flight 272 from Karachi, accompanied by five members of the Edhi Foundation which has been fostering her, sources at the Pakistan high commission said.
She will be received at the airport by senior Pakistani diplomats and officials from the ministry of external affairs. In a rare gesture, the Indian government will treat the members of the Karachi-based charity as state guests.
In the evening, Pakistan high commissioner Abdul Basit and his wife will host a reception for Geeta and those accompanying her.
Although Geeta is quite sure that the family in Bihar which has made the claim is her own, she will be handed over only after DNA tests. If the tests turn out negative she will be handed over to a care home either in Delhi or in Indore.
Indian authorities are proceeding cautiously, according to MEA sources, because at least four families had come forward to claim her.
The woman apparently entered the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on a train from India almost 15 years ago. She was found by police and sent to a state-run shelter.
Geeta was then moved from one shelter to another -- as she often tried to escape and quarrelled with staff -- before she arrived at the Edhi Foundation, which is Pakistan’s largest and best-known charity.
Her story evoked considerable media interest in India and Pakistan, especially after the release of Bollywood film Bajrangi Bhaijan which features Salman Khan overcoming all odds to take a deaf and mute girl back to her relatives in Pakistan.
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