Sushma speaks to missing Sufi cleric, says 'both safe, will return tomorrow'

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday stated that she spoke to Syed Nazim Ali Nizami, one of the missing clerics, in Karachi and was assured they were safe and would be back to Delhi on Monday.

Two Indian Sufi clerics of Delhi's Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah had gone missing earlier in Pakistan and their return to India was scheduled on March 20.

"I just spoke to Syed Nazim Ali Nizami in Karachi. He told me that they are safe and will be back in Delhi tomorrow," Sushma Swaraj tweeted.

The two missing clerics were found in Pakistan and are set to return to India on March 20, according to Pakistan media reports.

The two clerics had surfaced in Karachi and told that they had gone to meet their devotees in interior Sindh, where there was no phone connectivity.

The clerics, identified as Syed Asif Ali Nizami and his friend Nazim Nizami, belong to Delhi's Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah.

Syed Asif Ali Nizami is the head priest of New Delhi's Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah.

The duo had travelled to Pakistan to visit their relatives in Karachi and then embarked on a pilgrimage to Lahore.

One of them went missing in Karachi and the other in Lahore, reports claimed.

The Indian authorities had raised the issue with the Pakistan Foreign Ministry seeking its help in tracing their missing citizens.