External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday said the two Indian clerics who had gone missing in Pakistan have been located and will return to India on Monday. Swaraj had earlier taken up the matter with the Pakistan government. On Sunday, she said she had spoken to one of the clerics, Syed Asif Nizami in Karachi. “He told me they are safe and will be back in Delhi tomorrow,” she added.
On Saturday, unidentified officials had told PTI that they Syed Asif Nizami and and his nephew Nazim Nizami were in the custody of Pakistan’s intelligence agency for alleged links with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. The Pakistan government has been cracking down on members of the group after its its chief, Altaf Hussain, made allegedly “anti-national” statements in 2016. Several reports had suggested that the two clerics were offloaded on their plane to Lahore and taken away to an undisclosed location for questioning.
On Friday, Swaraj had said the Pakistani host of the Indian clerics seemed to be “under pressure” not to speak to the Indian High Commission. However, the Pakistan Foreign Office had said that it had no information about the two missing men.
Syed Asif Nizami is the head priest of Delhi’s Nizamuddin Dargah. He and his nephew had gone on a visit to Pakistan on March 8, and disappeared over the weekend.
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