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
Modi speaks to Merkel, invites her to visit India
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke on the phone Thursday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during his transit halt at Frankfurt on his way back home from the BRICS summit in Brazil and both leaders invited each other for official visits.
Modi speaks to Merkel, invites her to visit India
Sushma exhorts NRIs to assist in India's progress
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj Thursday called upon NRIs to work for the reconstruction of the country, and said Indians living abroad endorse the NDA government as their "own".
Sushma exhorts NRIs to assist in India's progress
Indian Government not considering artificial rainmaking programme
The government is not considering any artificial rainfall/cloud seeding programmes with the help of state governments and commercial firms due to scarcity in rainfall, parliament was told Thursday.
Indian Government not considering artificial rainmaking programme
Woman stripped, assaulted in Bihar, CM orders probe
A middle-aged woman was stripped and assaulted in public in Bihar's Jehanabad district for allegedly kidnapping two men whose bodies were found later, police said. The opposition termed the incident "return of jungle raj", while Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi Thursday ordered a probe.
Woman stripped, assaulted in Bihar, CM orders probe
After bikinis, mini-skirts and pubs, spas in Goa on moral radar
After bikinis, mini-skirts and pubs, spas and salons in coastal Goa now find themselves under the scanner of the politico-moral police who are out to take the fun out of the state that is one of India's top tourist draws for its many attractions.
After bikinis, mini-skirts and pubs, spas in Goa on moral radar
Modi meets Xi, seeks solution of border, trade imbalance issues
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday met Chinese President Xi Jinping and called for a solution to the "boundary question" as the two countries sought to expand their economic relations and rectify the trade imbalance.