Two missing Indian clerics traced, to return on Monday
KARACHI/NEW DELHI: The two missing Indian clerics of Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah have been “traced and have reached Karachi”, Pakistan on Saturday conveyed to India.
“Pakistan Foreign Office has confirmed that the two Indian clerics have been traced and reached Karachi,” a source said in New Delhi.
The confirmation came after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj spoke to Pakistan Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, regarding the case. Aziz is in London currently.
The two missing Indian clerics -- Syed Asif Nizami, the head priest (Sajjadanashin) of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia Dargah, and and his nephew Nazim Nizami -reached Karachi on Saturday evening.
According to Pakistani media reports, both clerics had been in “interior Sindh where there was no communication network” and that is why they could not tell their relatives about there whereabouts. They will leave for India on March 20.
Earlier in the day, Pakistani sources had said the two clerics were in the custody of Pakistan’s intelligence agency over their alleged links with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).
They were offloaded from Karachi-bound Shaheen Airlines on March 14 at the Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore, the Pakistani sources said.
“The personnel of an intelligence took both the clerics into custody after getting them offloaded and shifted them to an undisclosed location for investigation,” a source had said.
They further said both clerics had been detained for their alleged links with Altaf Hussain’s MQM.
The MQM emerged as a largely ethnic party in the 1980s.
It has political dominance in the southern Sindh province’s urban areas - notably in Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and Sukkur where a large number of Urdu-speaking people who fled to Pakistan from India during 1947’s partition reside.
80-year-old Asif Nizami is the head priest of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia Dargah. He along with his nephew Nazim Ali Nizami had gone to Pakistan on March 8 to see his sister in Karachi. They arrived in Lahore on March 13 and visited shrine of sufi saint Baba Farid Gang in Pakpattan. The two went missing on March 14 from Lahore.
Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria on Friday said Pakistan was “proactively pursuing” and have asked all departments concerned to look into the matter.
He had said in Islamabad that, “no clue to the missing Indian priests has been found so far”.
India has taken up this matter with Pakistan and ensure the safe recovery of Indian nationals. Official sources in New Delhi said Pakistan has conveyed that it was “seriously pursuing” the case with its law enforcement agencies.