Gita, a 23-year-old hearing and speech-impaired Indian woman stranded in Pakistan for the past 15 years, will be brought back to India and efforts are on to locate her family, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Saturday.
In a series of tweets, Sushma Swaraj said the government was completing the "necessary formalities to bring Gita back to India".
Sushma Swaraj tweeted that during the past few days, "four families from Punjab, Bihar, Jharkhand and UP have claimed Gita as their daughter" and that she has requested the chief ministers of the respective states to "verify and report".
"Gita conveyed to the Indian High Commissioner by gestures that they are seven brothers and sisters. She also conveyed that she had visited a temple with her father. Then she wrote down 'Vaishno Devi'."
"With these details, please help locate Gita's family," the minister tweeted.
Gita's story has the elements of recent Bollywood blockbuster 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' in which actor Salman Khan crosses the border to escort a six-year-old mute Pakistani girl back to her village.
Since her story hit the limelight earlier this week, four families have come forward to claim that Gita was their long-lost daughter.
A family from Uttar Pradesh and one from Jharkhand came forward on Friday.
Ramraj and Anara Devi, who hail from Dhamohan village in Uttar Pradesh's Pratapgarh district, claimed Gita was their daughter Savita who went missing from an ashram in Bihar 11 years ago, according to media reports.
The couple approached the authorities after seeing TV news reports and pictures of Gita, who they say is one of their six children who went missing at the age of nine.
A couple from Bokaro in Jharkhand claimed Gita was their fourth child Kokia Kumari who went missing more than a decade ago.
Earlier, another couple from Amritsar claimed Gita was their daughter Pooja, who they used to call Guddi.
MORE India ARTICLES
Fog Blankets North India, Amritsar Colder Than Shimla
It was yet another bone-chilling day across northern India Monday, and the entire region remained blanketed under dense fog. Temperatures in many places in Jammu and Kashmir went below the freezing point, while cities like Amritsar and Karnal in the plains proved colder than hilly Shimla.
Fog Blankets North India, Amritsar Colder Than Shimla
Rail Coaches Derail At Chandigarh Station, No Injuries
The Chandigarh railway station Sunday witnessed a freak accident when stationary coaches started rolling on their own and two derailed while one was half-way off the tracks, officials said.
Rail Coaches Derail At Chandigarh Station, No Injuries
Punjab Scraps NRI Meet, Opts For Low-profile Event
Marking a shift from its earlier high-profile annual NRI meets, the Punjab government has decided to opt for a comparatively low-profile events for the diaspora early next year.
Punjab Scraps NRI Meet, Opts For Low-profile Event
Woman Dead, Three Hurt In A Low Intensity Blast in Bengaluru
A woman died and three other people were injured in a low-intensity blast near a restaurant in the city centre Sunday, a top police official said.
Woman Dead, Three Hurt In A Low Intensity Blast in Bengaluru
North India Shivers; Season's Coldest In Delhi, UP Death Toll Now 125
It was a bone-chilling day across northern India Sunday, as Jammu and Kashmir's Leh recorded its coldest temperature at minus 17 degrees Celsius and Delhi saw the season's coldest day at 2.6 degrees.
North India Shivers; Season's Coldest In Delhi, UP Death Toll Now 125
Chandigarh Records Two Degrees Celsius Temperature, Punjab Shivers Too
As intense cold swept across Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, the minimum temperatures at most places were recorded between two and four degrees Celsius, weather officials said Sunday.