Sushma speaks to Sartaj Aziz on clerics

The missing clerics of the Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah were traced in Pakistan on Saturday after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj spoke to her counterpart in the neighbouring country, Sartaj Aziz.

Aziz, Foreign Affairs Advisor to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, promised during his phone call with Swaraj that all efforts would be made to trace the clerics who went missing in Pakistan earlier this week while on a tour.

“I spoke to Mr Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan PM's Adviser on foreign affairs regarding missing Indian nationals Syed Asif Ali Nizami and Nazim Ali Nizami of Hazrat #Nizamuddin Aulia Dargah,” Swaraj posted on Twitter on Saturday. “He assured me of all help in tracing the missing clerics,” she added in another tweet.

Aziz was in London when Swaraj called him and sought his assistance. Shortly after the call, officials of Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the Indian High Commission in that country that the two missing clerics had been traced, sources said.

Swaraj's call to Aziz was the first public contact between the two after they had a brief informal chat on the sidelines of a SAARC meet in Kathmandu in March 2016 – just three months after Pakistani terrorists attacked Indian Air Force base at Pathankot in Punjab and derailed the process to restart bilateral engagements.

New Delhi has been urging Islamabad since Thursday to find out Syed Asif Ali Nizami and his nephew Nazim Ali Nizami after both went missing while on a religious tour to Pakistan.The clerics visited Pakistan several times in the past, since Delhi’s Nizamuddin Dargah has a strong spiritual link with Lahore’s Data Darbar.
DH News Service