External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has raised the matter of two missing Indian clerics in Pakistan with the country’s government. “We have taken up this matter with the government of Pakistan and requested them for an update on both the Indian nationals,” she said on Twitter on Friday.
Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said they had forwarded India’s request to the Interior Minsitry who were pursuing the case, reported IANS. The clerics may have been either kidnapped by a militant group or taken into custody by intelligence agencies, Hindustan Times reported quoting unidentified officials.
Syed Asif Ali Nizami, the head priest of Delhi’s Hazrat Nizammuddin Aulia Dargah, and his nephew Nazim Ali Nizami have been missing since they landed at the Karachi airport on March 8, Swaraj added. However, there are conflicting reports on when the pair became untraceable.
According to reports, the 80-year-old and his nephew visited Lahore’s Daata Darbar shrine and were supposed to fly back to India from Karachi on Wednesday. They had visited their relatives in Karachi before heading to Lahore.
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