External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday spoke to one of the two clerics of Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah in Delhi, who were traced after going missing in Pakistan.
“I just spoke to Syed Nazim Ali Nizami in Karachi. He told me that they are safe and will be back in Delhi tomorrow [on Monday],” she said in a tweet.
Pakistan had on Saturday conveyed to India that the two missing clerics had been “traced”, and they had reached Karachi.
Syed Asif Nizami, the head priest (Sajjadanashin) of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia Dargah, and his nephew, Nazim Nizami, had gone to Pakistan on March 8 and were to return to India on March 20.
The main purpose of the visit of the 80-year-old Asif to Pakistan was to see his sister in Karachi.
On Saturday, Ms. Swaraj spoke to Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs, regarding the case.
According to Pakistani media reports, both clerics had been in “interior Sindh where there was no communication network”, and thus could not tell their relatives about their whereabouts.
Earlier, Pakistani officials said the two clerics were in the custody of Pakistan’s intelligence agency over their alleged links with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.
The clerics were offloaded from a Karachi-bound Shaheen Airlines flight on March 14 at the Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore, the officials said.
Visited followers
An Associated Press report from Karachi quoted a family member of the two in the city as saying that they had returned safely after travelling in a remote area with no cellular service.
Waziruddin Nizami said on Sunday that they returned to Karachi after visiting followers in rural areas of Sindh.
He had filed a missing person report with the police after family members lost contact with the pair.
