2 missing Indian clerics in custody

They have been detained for their alleged link with Altaf Hussain’s MQM

The two missing Indian clerics of Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah are in custody of Pakistan’s intelligence agency over their alleged links with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), official sources said yesterday.

Syed Asif Nizami and his nephew Nazim Nizami were offloaded from Karachi-bound Shaheen Airlines on March 14 at the Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore, they said.

“The personnel of an intelligence arm took both the clerics into custody after getting them offloaded and shifted them to an undisclosed location for investigation,” the sources told PTI on condition of anonymity.

They further said both clerics have been detained for their alleged link with MQM of Altaf Hussain.

“They are being interrogated for their alleged links with Altaf’s party men in Karachi,” the sources said, adding they will be freed if nothing is established against them.

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 “pro-actively pursuing” and asked all departments to look into the matter.