Indian diplomats allowed to meet lost girl in Karachi

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has given permission to 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.
Since it is going to be a huge media story, Indian press councilor Balbir Singh is going to have his hands full in Karachi where now a future Lollywood film is unfolding.“A note verbale was sent from the Indian High Commission seeking permission to travel to Karachi to the Foreign Office which is the usual procedure and it was given,” say officials.
The Indian delegation will be flying out on Tuesday evening and will try to visit the Eidhi center the same day or Wednesday morning, say Indian diplomats.Immediately after Indian film Bajrangi Bhaijan took Pakistan by storm the social media was awash with 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.
Kabir Khan’s Bajrangi Bhaijan is a story about a young Pakistani girl Munne who gets separated from her mother and finds herself in India, a film writers and intellectuals confessed that they cried watching.
Bollywood unknowingly brought a real life humane story to Karachi where everyone is now praying and hoping that the Indian delegation’s visit headed by a Diplomatic Bhaijan, would end the misery and longing of the real life Munni.
Like Munni in Bajrangi Bhaijan, Geeta too is unable to speak and was merely a child when she was found but has bits of information like the fact that she recognises the Indian map and points to Jharkhand and Telanganga as areas she recognises is all that anyone has to work on.
That the social media has revolutionised the world could be seen when in response to a Pakistani Tweet, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in a post on Twitter on Monday, said: “I have asked Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Dr TCA Raghavan to go to Karachi with Mrs Raghavan and meet this girl.”
Indian and Pakistani citizens whose citizenship has not been verified in normal circumstances are dealt with by diplomats from both sides but rarely 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 some few cases manage to be verified and sent back home. It is only when they are very young. But if somebody like Geeta is unable to speak, chances of verification become very slim.
But now not only Pakistan and India but the world media is watching Geeta’s story unfold, and with pressure building up it is quite clear that neither the diplomats nor the media will leave any stone unturned to ensure that a young lady is reunited with her family! Both countries desperately need stories with happy endings.