Geeta arrives in Delhi after 11 years stuck in Pakistan

New Delhi: Geeta, dressed in a red and white salwar kameez, her head covered with a dupatta, arrived at the Delhi airport this morning from Karachi to be re-united with her family after 11 years.

The 23-year-old is hearing and speech impaired. She has lived in Pakistan ever since she accidentally crossed the border as a child. Earlier this month, she identified her father, step-mother and siblings from one of many photographs sent to her by the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.

Accompanied by members of the charitable Edhi Foundation which has taken care of Geeta all these years, the young woman smiled as she was welcomed by Indian and Pakistani officials at the airport.

Janardhan Mahto from Bihar, the man Geeta identified as her father, is in Delhi to receive her. "I am very happy



and back in the village it is just like Diwali, the atmosphere is festive," he said. Mr Mahto has five sons and two daughters. Geeta, he has claimed, is his first born Heera, who was lost in a fair in 2004.

In Karachi, where Geeta lived, she was given an emotional farewell. She travelled to Delhi with Bilkis Edhi of the foundation, who has been a mother to Geeta since she was found in Pakistan in 2004.

Geeta was reportedly just 11 or 12 years old when the Pakistan Rangers found her sitting alone on the Samjhauta Express from Delhi at the Lahore railway station.

Her story has been compared to the Salman Khan's blockbuster "Bajrangi Bhaijaan", about a little girl from Pakistan stuck in India. The actor plays Bajrangi, a man who made it his mission to take the girl to her family in Pakistan.