Indian Muslim clerics go missing in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan says authorities are looking for two prominent Indian Muslim clerics who went missing during a visit to the country earlier this month.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Saturday that Asif Ali Nizami, the custodian of a famed Sufi shrine in New Delhi, and another cleric arrived at the Karachi airport on March 8. Their families have since lost contact with them.

The ministry spokesman, Nafees Zakaria, said Pakistan is looking into the matter following an Indian request. India’s external affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj, said on Twitter earlier this week that she had taken up the case of the missing clerics.

Islamic militants in Pakistan have repeatedly targeted the followers of Sufi orders and their shrines, which extremists view as un-Islamic.