Close X
Monday, September 23, 2024
ADVT 
India

India Working To Bring Back Gita, Locate Family: Sushma Swaraj

IANS, 08 Aug, 2015 01:36 PM
    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

    Unseasonal Rain Kills Seven Across India; Damages Crops

    Unseasonal Rain Kills Seven Across India; Damages Crops
    The fury of unseasonal rain in different states of north and east India since Sunday evening has left at least seven people dead and damaged standing crops in thousands of hectares, officials said on Monday.

    Unseasonal Rain Kills Seven Across India; Damages Crops

    Bharat Ratna, Padma Awards Conferred On Prominent People

    Bharat Ratna, Padma Awards Conferred On Prominent People
    Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award, was bestowed posthumously on freedom fighter and eminent educationist Madan Mohan Malaviya at an investiture ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Monday evening.

    Bharat Ratna, Padma Awards Conferred On Prominent People

    17 Die As Floods Ravage Kashmir

    17 Die As Floods Ravage Kashmir
    Up to 16 people were killed on Monday as a devastating flood in the Kashmir Valley forced thousands to flee to safer places as rain-fed streams rushed down the mountains, flooding parts of Srinagar. A man was washed away by a swollen river in Jammu region.

    17 Die As Floods Ravage Kashmir

    Canada Offers Expertise In Smart City Development To Telangana, Andhra

    Canada Offers Expertise In Smart City Development To Telangana, Andhra
    Consul General in Bengaluru Sidney Frank, who is leading a business delegation on a two-day visit to the two states, made the remarks at meeting here. 

    Canada Offers Expertise In Smart City Development To Telangana, Andhra

    In Latest Makeover, Aam Aadmi Party Lokpal Ramdas Also Goes

    In Latest Makeover, Aam Aadmi Party Lokpal Ramdas Also Goes
    In the throes of internal strife, Delhi's ruling AAP on Sunday replaced its Lokpal, retired Admiral L. Ramdas, with a team of three ombudsmen, who include two former police officers.

    In Latest Makeover, Aam Aadmi Party Lokpal Ramdas Also Goes

    AAP Crisis: Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan Sacked From National Executive Body

    The month-long internecine war between AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and dissident leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan came to a head on Saturday with the duo being expelled from the party's national executive for sabotaging the organisation.

    AAP Crisis: Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan Sacked From National Executive Body