KARACHI: A Pakistani court on Thursday rejected a petition of a local human rights activist seeking access to the blood and handwriting samples of an Indian deaf and mute girl, who strayed into Pakistan from her homeland over a decade ago.
The judge at the southern district ruled that the petition for taking the custody of Geeta, the Hindu Indian woman, currently living at Edhi Home, was out of the court’s jurisdiction.
The court added that the foreign offices of the two countries were the appropriate offices to take up the matter.
A teacher of special education facilitated the court for communication with Geeta, who cant hear or speak, and uses her hands for conversation. In her statement, Geeta told the court that she had three sisters and four brothers. Geeta further told the court that she did not remember for how long she had been living at the Edhi Home, but could recall that the police had handed her over to the Edhi officials in Lahore.
The court tried to extract her Indian address from Geeta, but she could only provide ‘193’ as her home address and say that it was located near the rice fields.
Momin Malik, a lawyer and the human right activist, had filed a petition at the district court to take the custody of Geeta in order to take her across the border.
Geeta has been stuck in Pakistan for 13 years, unable to either remember or explain exactly where she is from.
But a ray of hope emerged following extensive media coverage of Geeta’s case, one that was mirrored in the blockbuster Bolllywood movie Bajrangi Bhaijan. The Indian government pledged to bring Geeta home and the Indian ambassador to Pakistan visited the Edhi Home to see her.
Although she cannot speak, Geeta can write the words “Telangana”, the name of a state in southern India, and “Peddavura”, the name of a village, in Hindi along with the number 193.
Her memory of how she came to be in Pakistan is hazy and her account, communicated through improvised sign language, has changed over time.
Geeta, then aged 11 or 12, had no identity papers when she was found by police alone and disorientated on a train that had crossed the border into the eastern city of Lahore. Even the name Geeta was given to her by Edhi staff.
