Barao Abdul with Ansar Burney on Friday. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Barao Abdul smiled, her eyes glistening with hope, the moment she saw Ansar Burney on Friday.

“I am missing my home and family. I want to go home,” the 31-year-old told the Karachi-based lawyer and human rights activist from her hospital bed.

Barao, who claims she is from Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, was found lying unconscious in tattered clothes near Contai, in East Midnapore, on April 27, 2006.

Unable to recall her past, she has been languishing at NRS Medical College and Hospital since August 2006. In the intervening months, she was in Contai sub-divisional hospital.

Barao, who hardly spoke in the past two years, was thrilled when she learnt two days ago that Burney would meet her. “She was very excited, always talking about the impending visit,” said a nurse.

On Friday morning, she woke early and dressed up in a new light cream salwar kameez, wore glass bangles and applied lipstick and kajal. These were gifts from her social worker friends.

Burney, who has been trying to reunite Barao with her family ever since he read about her in The Telegraph six months ago, said: “She doesn’t remember her past clearly. After speaking to her I am sure that she is from Kashmir, but it’s not yet clear which part of Kashmir. Her Urdu accent is undoubtedly Pakistani.”

The lawyer also feels that the woman had some association with the armed forces and exposure to healthcare. Barao had earlier claimed that her father, Sakhatar Abdul, was a doctor with the Pakistan army and her husband, Abdul Rehman, lived in Delhi.

“I will speak with the authorities in Pakistan and circulate her pictures among media houses,” said Burney, who has been in touch with NGO workers helping Barao.

Utpal Roy, the general secretary of Diganta, the NGO that brought Barao to Calcutta, hopes Burney’s efforts would bear fruit. “It will be great if her relatives come and take her home.”

Doctors treating Barao said she was suffering from a “psychotic episode” and required “home environment” to recover fully. “She is fine and can be discharged as soon as her identity is established,” said NRS superintendent Lakshmi Kanta Ghosh.