Securing India’s coast through multi-agency ops
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External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday made a fervent appeal to the public to help locate the parents of Geeta, a deaf and mute 25-year-old Indian woman who was brought back two years ago after having inadvertently crossed over to Pakistan over a decade ago.
Holding Geeta in her arms in a video, Sushma Swaraj appealed to Geeta’s parents to come and accept her and gave the assurance that she would not be a burden to anyone.
Geeta was about 11 years of age when she inadvertently crossed the border into Pakistan in 2003.
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She was spotted by the Pakistan Rangers in Lahore, and was handed over to the Edhi Foundation, a social welfare organisation that had looked after her since then.
Bilquis Edhi, who runs the Edhi Foundation, named her Geeta.
In October 2015, she was brought back to India accompanied by a lawyer of the Edhi Foundation.
Thereafter Geeta was taken by an NGO in Indore where she learned sewing and using the computer.
Sushma Swaraj said that Geeta was desperate to meet her parents and complains about this whenever the two of them meet.
“Come and accept your daughter,” Sushma Swaraj appealed to Geeta’s parents in the video. “I assure we will take full responsibility of her studies and marriage.”
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