Sufi clerics meet Sushma Swaraj; stay mum on disappearance

Sushma Swaraj (PHOTO: PIB)


The two Sufi clerics who returned from Pakistan on Monday morning met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj along with their family members.

Reports suggest that Syed Asif Nizami and Nazim Nizami, the two clerics, thanked the governments of India and Pakistan for their safe return but remained silent what led to their disappearance.

Nazim Ali Nizami, one of the clerics has even rejected Pakistani media reports that they were in interior Sindh claiming that they did not have any visa for that region.

"We did not have visa for Sindh interior region, so how could we have gone there? We come from the school of sufi which teaches peace and brotherhood. There are good and bad elements and those who go against the teachings they have to suffer humiliation," he was quoted as saying to a news agency.

Swaraj had on Sunday said in a series of tweets that she spoke to one of the two clerics, who were later found 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 on Monday," she had said in a tweet.

Syed Asif Nizami, the head priest (Sajjadanashin) of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia Dargah and his nephew Nazim Nizami had gone to Pakistan on March 8 as part of annual exchanges between Hazrat Nizamuddin and Garib Nawaz, who is venerated at the Data Darbar Sufi shrine in Lahore.