Indian 'mystery woman' Geeta says family not hers Published duration 26 October 2015

image copyright Reuters image caption Geeta has said that the family she had previously identified in photos is not hers

An Indian woman who was stranded in Pakistan for a decade has returned home, but says the family she had identified in photos is not hers.

India's Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said the woman, named Geeta, is "refusing to recognise her family".

Geeta arrived in Delhi on Monday morning, days after she identified her family in photos sent from India.

The government will now carry out a DNA test to ascertain if the family, who met her in Delhi, is really hers.

Geeta, who has speech and hearing impairments, was about 11 when she is believed to have strayed into Pakistan.

Her plight emerged following a Bollywood film Bajrangi Bhaijaan, which told the story of a Pakistani girl who cannot speak and is trapped in India.

At the scene, Shahzeb Jillani, Karachi

image copyright AFP image caption Geeta will be lodged at a shelter home in the central Indian city of Indore

Geeta was visibly jubilant as she left the Edhi shelter home in Karachi, where she had spent most of her time in Pakistan.

She was driven to the Karachi Airport in an Edhi Welfare van.

Accompanied by members of the Edhi family and her friends, Geeta's bags were filled with new clothes as well as gifts for her family in India, including colourful saris, glass bangles, gold jewellery and dry fruit.

At the airport, Pakistani officials gave her more gifts as well as bouquets of flowers. Wearing a red and white scarf over her head, Geeta smiled, posed for photos and used hand gestures to thank her carers in Pakistan for their hospitality.

Her friends at Edhi shelter home said they were sad to see her go.

"She was the only friend I had here," Razia Saher, one of her co-workers at the Edhi Home said. "I am happy that she will finally be reunited with her family but we will miss her."

Apart from a family from the eastern state of Bihar that Geeta identified from photographs, and later met in Delhi, at least two other families claimed her as their own.

Ms Swaraj said that they would "counsel" Geeta to accept her family, if the DNA test proved that they were related.

If the tests are negative, she will be cared for at the shelter home until her family is traced, officials said.

Ms Swaraj said: "Whether or not her parents are found, Geeta is our daughter. I thank Pakistan from the core of my heart for looking after her for so long."

image copyright AFP image caption Geeta arrived in Delhi on Monday morning, days after she identified her family in photos sent from India

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