IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Geeta Returns to India 13 Years After Wandering Across Border

A deaf-mute Indian girl stranded in Pakistan for 13 years after wandering over one of the world's most militarized borders arrived home on Monday.
Image: Geeta prepares to depart from Karachi, Pakistan
Geeta greets journalists with a traditional Indian "namaste" prior her departure from the international airport in Karachi, Pakistan, on Oct. 26, 2015. Shakil Adil / AP
/ Source: Reuters

NEW DELHI — A deaf-mute Indian girl stranded in Pakistan for 13 years after wandering over one of the world's most militarized borders arrived home on Monday to be reunited with the family she has identified from photographs.

Image: Geeta arrives in New Delhi on Monday
Geeta holds a bouquet of flowers as arrives in New Delhi, India, on Monday.ADNAN ABIDI / Reuters

The story of Geeta, a Hindu woman in her early 20s, has captivated people in both countries at a time of heightened tension and border clashes between the nuclear-armed rivals.

"Geeta — welcome home our daughter," Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Twitter. Geeta was about 11 when she crossed from India into Pakistan. Exactly how is not clear but Geeta mimes an explosion and shows how she ducked and ran before being caught by armed men.

At first, she was kept at a children's home in the city of Lahore, where she was given the Muslim name Fatima.

She would point at maps of India, especially to an area in the south of Jharkhand State until she was able to finally communicate she was from India, not Pakistan.

Early on Monday, Geeta left the charity bound for the airport in the city of Karachi for a flight to New Delhi.

Wearing a traditional red outfit with her head covered by a loose scarf, she smiled and waved to television cameras after leaving the airport in the Indian capital.

Image: Geeta holds a photograph possibly of her family on Oct. 15
Geeta holds a photograph, possibly of her family, in the Pakistani city of Karachi on October 15.RIZWAN TABASSUM / AFP - Getty Images

"Geeta stayed with us for 13 years. Now it's time for her to go home," said Faisal Edhi, son of the founder of Edhi Foundation, a Pakistani charity that looked after the girl.

She was headed to meet a family from India's Bihar state whom she says she recognized from photos sent by the Indian High Commission in Pakistan.

Edhi said investigations will be done to be certain the family is actually hers.

"If the DNA doesn't match, the Indian authorities will continue the search for her family."

Hostilities have kept apart many families since majority-Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan became separate countries in 1947.