What We Know About Dr. Afia Siddiqui..??

I tried To Know Something More About Dr. Aafia Siddiqu and Thought it To Share It with you

Dr. Afia Siddiqui, a married mother of three small children and a citizen of the United States, studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for 10 years, gaining a PhD in genetics. On 30th March 2003, Dr. Siddiqui left her mother’s house in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi, Sindh, along with her three children, in

a metro-cab to catch a flight for Rawalpindi, Punjab. She and her children never reached the airport and no one that she knows has ever seen them since.

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A few days after her disappearance, an American news channel, NBC, reported that Dr. Siddiqui had been arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of facilitating money transfers for Al-Quaida. Dr. Siddiqui’s mother denied that her daughter was ever involved with Al-Quaida, stating that Dr. Siddiqui is a neurological scientist and has been living with her husband in the USA for several years. American and Pakistan officials subsequently denied arresting Dr. Siddiqui or having any knowledge of her whereabouts. In 2004, the FBI put her photographs on their website claiming that Dr. Siddiqui was an Al-Quaida facilitator. Claims emerged that she was involved in the 2001 diamond trade in Liberia. Later, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, Dr. Siddiqui’s lawyer would provide evidence proving that Dr. Siddiqui could not have had anything to do with the Liberian diamond trade as she was in Boston, USA duing the time period alleged. Since then, reports emerged that Dr. Siddiqui was being detained as ‘Prisoner 650′ in Bagram detention centre, Afghanistan. Moazzam Begg, the British ex- Guantanamo Bay prisoner mentioned Dr. Siddiqui in his book ‘The Enemy Combatant’. After the book’s publication in 2006, several Human Rights Organisations and activists raised voices concerning the disappearance of Dr. Siddiqui. In June 2007, Amnesty International included Dr. Siddiqui on list of people for whom there was ‘evidence of secret detention by the United States and whose fate and whereabouts remain unknown’. Lord Nazir Ahmed raised concerns to the UK Parliament that Prisoner 650 had been raped and tortured while in Bagram. On 6th July 2008, Yvonne Ridley, a British journalist called for help for a Pakistani woman held in isolation by the Americans in Bagram for over four years. At a press conference she stated “I call her the ‘grey lady’ because she is almost a ghost, a spectre whose cries and screams continues to haunt those who heard her. This would never happen to a Western Woman” Ms Ridley said at a press

conference. The U.S and Afghan Govnerments claim that Dr.Siddiqui was never detained at Bagram and that they had no knowledge of her whereabouts However, on July 17 2008 they alleged that Dr. Siddiqui along with her eldest son, was found outside the Ghazni Province Government Compound, Afganistan, where she was carrying ammunition and explosives attempting to cause destruction to the compound and kill the Governor of Ghazni. It is asserted that Dr. Siddiqui’s attempts were foiled when the police force shot back at her. According to this claim, Dr. Siddiqui was then arrested and detained in custody at the Ghazni Province Police Facility ‘for the first time’. On 4th August 2008, federal prosecutors in the US confirmed that Dr. Siddiqui was extradited to the US from Afghanistan to face charges of ‘Assault with a

deadly weapon’. They allege that whilst in custody she shot at US officers, but was herself injured thereby explaining the manifest injuries to her body. On this basis, she also faced a second charge of attempting to kill U.S personell. According to her lawyer, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, “We know she [Dr. Siddiqui] was at Bagram for a long time. It was a long time. According to my client she was there for years and she was held in American custody; her treatment was horrendous.” Dr. Siddiqui’s claim is contrary to the heavily contested position of the US administration that she was detained in July 2008 by Afghan forces while attempting to bomb the compound of the governor of Ghazni. Her lawyers claim that the evidence was planted on her. The US has previously denied the presence of female detainees in Bagram and that Aafia was ever held there, bar for medical treatment in July 2008. Dr. Siddiqui remained in a US detention facility in New York, in poor health, subjected to degrading and humiliating strip searches and cavity searches whenever she receives a legal visit or appearance in court. It has been reported that she suffered from brain damage and that a part of her intestine may have been removed. Her lawyers say her symptoms are consistent with a sufferer of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Dr. Siddiqui’s eldest son, Ahmad,

is believed to be in custody in Afghanistan. Despite the fact he is a US national he was not extradited along with his mother to the US. The whereabouts of Aafia’s two youngest children, missing for the past five years, remain unknown. On January 19th 2010, Dr. Siddiqui’s trial began in New York City. The trial lasted 14 days with the jury taking 3 days to reach a verdict. On February 3, 2010, she was found guilty of two counts of attempted murder, armed assault, using and carrying a firearm, and three counts of assault on U.S. officers and employees. She faces a minimum sentence of 30 years and a maximum of life in prison on the firearm charge, and could also get up to 20 years for each attempted murder and firearms charge and up to 8 years on each of the remaining assault counts In Pakistan, a petition was filed seeking action against the Pakistani government for not approaching the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to have Siddiqui released from the U.S. Barrister Javed Iqbal Jaffree said the CIA had arrested Siddiqui in Karachi in 2003, and one of her sons was killed during her arrest. On January 21, 2010, he submitted documents allegedly proving the arrest to the Lahore High Court

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