By Marina Baber
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has given permission to the Indian High Commissioner Dr TCA Raghavan, his wife Mrs Ranjana Raghavan, Visa Councillor Janesh and other Indian officials to travel to Karachi to meet with an Indian girl who has been stranded in Pakistan for the last 15 years after she was found by the Punjab Rangers.
Given the media interest in the case following the runaway success of the Bollywood Salman Khan starrer ‘Bajrangi Bhaijan’, Indian press councilor Balbir Singh will have his hands full in Karachi where it looks like a future Lollywood film is unfolding.
Officials say that the Indian High Commission sent a note verbale to the Foreign Office, seeking permission to travel to Karachi which is the usual procedure.
The Indian delegation will fly out on Tuesday evening and will try to visit the Eidhi center the same day or Wednesday morning, say Indian diplomats.
Immediately after Bajrangi Bhaijan took Pakistan by storm the social media was awash about the real life predicament of a young Indian girl, “Geeta” now in her twenties, who has spent 16 years at the Eidhi home, waiting to be reunited with her family after straying into Pakistan. Bilquis Edhi says she named her Geeta.
Aug 8, 2012: Geeta, a deaf and mute Indian girl, communicating her story through her own form of sign language during an interview by Hasan Mansoor, AFP at Edhi Home, in Karachi. Photo: Rizwan Tabassum, AFP
Kabir Khan’s “Bajrangi Bhaijan” features a mute young Pakistani girl Shahida who gets separated from her mother and finds herself stranded in India, where she is nicknamed “Munni”. Many writers and intellectuals confess to have cried watching this drama, comedy, and tear-jerker.
Bollywood perhaps unwittingly drew attention to a real life story to Karachi where everyone is now praying and hoping that the Indian delegation’s visit headed by a diplomatic Bhaijan, will end the misery and longing of a real life Munni.
Aug 8, 2012: Geeta, a deaf and mute Indian girl, browsing through a book on Hindu faith during at Edhi Home, Karachi. Photo: Rizwan Tabassum, AFP
Aug 8, 2012: Geeta, a deaf and mute Indian girl, trying to explain her story through her limited skills in Hindi writing at Edhi Home, Karachi. Photo: Rizwan Tabassum, AFP
Like Munni in Bajrangi Bhaijan, Geeta was merely a child when she was found, but can convey through sign language and limited writing skills bits of information. She recognizes the Indian map and points to Jharkhand and Telanganga as areas she recognizes is all that anyone has to work on. See Facebook page “Please Help Geeta…”
That the social media have revolutionized the world is clear in the Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s response to a tweet by a Pakistani lawyer Ansar Burney on Twitter on Monday: “I have asked Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Dr TCA Raghavan to go to Karachi with Mrs Raghavan and meet this girl.”
I have asked Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Dr TCA Raghavan to go to Karachi with Mrs Raghavan and meet this girl. @AnsarBurney
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 3, 2015
In normal circumstances, diplomats from both sides deal with cases of Indian and Pakistani citizens whose citizenship is not been verified. This rarely happens at the level of a High Commissioner. Rarer still is the Foreign Minister entering into the fray to give directives.
Hundreds of Munnis, Munnas and Geetas stray unknowingly across the border and in a few cases manage to be verified and sent home. It is only when they are very young and as in Geeta’s case unable to speak that chances become very slim.
Now with not only Pakistan and India but the world media watching Geeta’s story unfold, and pressure building up, it appears that diplomats and media will leave no stone unturned to ensure that a young lady is reunited with her family.
Both countries desperately need stories with happy endings.
