Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal meets Geeta, offers all help

NEW DELHI: Geeta, the mute and deaf Indian girl who returned home yesterday from Pakistan, met Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at his residence here this morning.

Interacting with 23-year-old Geeta for almost 20 minutes through a sign language interpreter, Kejriwal offered her every possible help as she begins her life anew in India.

Dressed in a sky blue-magenta salwar-kameez and her head covered with a dupatta, Geeta had come for the interaction accompanied by five members of the Pakistani Edhi foundation, which was taking care of her in Pakistan.

Nearly 15 years after inadvertently crossing into the neighbouring country, Geeta returned to India yesterday to an emotional welcome.

She was received by senior officials from External Affairs Ministry and Pakistan High Commission here on her arrival from Karachi and also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj.

She failed, however, to recognise a family which she had initially identified from photographs and Swaraj said that she will be staying in Indore till her "real family" was found.

"Welcome back home, Geeta. It is truly wonderful to have you back home... All of India will take care of you," Modi said and assured that every effort would be made to trace her family.

Geeta was reportedly just 7 or 8 years old when she was found nearly 15 years ago by the Pakistan Rangers, sitting alone on the Samjhauta Express at the Lahore railway station.

She was adopted by the Edhi Foundation's Bilquees Edhi and lived with her in Karachi. Bilquis and her grandchildren, Saba and Saad Edhi, have accompanied Geeta here.

Her story came to light after the release of Salman Khan starrer ' Bajrangi Bhaijaan', in which the eponymous hero unites a girl separated from her Pakistani mother during a visit to India.