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
Robert Vadra Hopes Enquiry Is Not For Political Vendetta
Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, said on Friday that he hoped the enquiry ordered against him over his land deals in Haryana will not be used for political vendetta.
Robert Vadra Hopes Enquiry Is Not For Political Vendetta
In A Landmark Judgment, Indian Supreme Court Prohibits Politicians' Photos On Government Ads
A bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose however permitted the use of photographs of the president, prime minister, Chief Justice of India and departed leaders, including Father of the Nation, in such advertisements.
In A Landmark Judgment, Indian Supreme Court Prohibits Politicians' Photos On Government Ads
With NRI Help, Punjab Targets 1000 MW Solar Energy by 2017
The minister inaugurated a 1 MW solar energy project set up by Britain-based NRIs Avtar Singh Kang and Raovarinder Singh Kang in their ancestral village Lallian Kalan in Jalandhar district with an investment of Rs.7.25 crore.
With NRI Help, Punjab Targets 1000 MW Solar Energy by 2017
Land Bill Sent To Select Panel; Rahul Says Government Murdered UPA Act
The Lok Sabha on Tuesday referred the land acquisition bill to a joint committee of the two houses after an spirited debate in which Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi accused the NDA government of "murdering" the legislation passed by the previous UPA regime.
Land Bill Sent To Select Panel; Rahul Says Government Murdered UPA Act
Modi Seeks To Improve Relations With Pakistan Via Cricket
Despite apprehensions raised by some BJP MPs about a proposed India-Pakistan cricket series, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is determined to break the ice with the neighbouring country through "cricket diplomacy", informed sources here said.
Modi Seeks To Improve Relations With Pakistan Via Cricket
Dawood In Pakistan, We'll Get Him, Says Rajnath Singh
India has credible information that underworld don Dawood Ibrahim is in Pakistan and we will not rest till he is brought back, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday. But Pakistan denied the fugitive is present there.