Dr Fauzia Siddiqui has said that due to the condition of her sister, imprisoned Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, she could not recognize her when she first met her after 20 years in a prison hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, USA.
Dr Fowzia was in the US with Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Senator Mushtaq and human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith when she was finally allowed to meet Dr Aafia.
On his return to Pakistan, the doctor told reporters at the Karachi airport that this government had helped him meet his sister even though previous governments had been able to do so.
He said that Prime Minister and Foreign Minister helped me in my meeting with Aafia.
Reflecting on the meeting with her sister, she said: “I couldn’t have imagined that Dr. Aafia would have gone through such a terrible situation.”
“I couldn’t even recognize him because of his condition.”
Dr. Fowzia said that if the government tries, it will be very easy to bring back Dr. Aafia. He said that his next meeting with his sister is in July.
The imprisoned doctor had about three meetings with his sister and met Senator Mushtaq of Jamaat-e-Islami and a human rights lawyer.
However, none of them could meet her physically as they were separated by transparent glass and were allowed to talk by phone.
Rally
Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami on Sunday organized a huge rally to welcome its party leader Mushtaq on his return from America after meeting Dr. Aafia.
A procession of vehicles was taken out from the Motorway Toll Plaza to Hashtnagari Chowk where a public gathering was organized. The rally was addressed by Mushtaq, district president of the party Bahrullah Khan and others.
Dr Fauzia was also supposed to attend the rally. But due to non-availability of the flight, she could not reach. However, he addressed the gathering through telephone.
Speaking on the occasion, Mushtaq urged the nation to raise their voices for the release of Dr. Aafia so that the government could take steps for her release.
He said that Dr. Aafia’s 86-year imprisonment and police violence are proof of human rights violations by the so-called champions of human rights.
He criticized the rulers for handing over the nation’s daughter to America for a few thousand dollars.
He said that the political parties in the opposition never tired of raising their voice for Dr. Aafia’s release. But when they come to power, they remain silent on the issue.
Dr. Aafia – A Brief Profile
A US-educated Pakistani scientist, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, was sentenced in 2010 by a federal district court in New York to 86 years for attempted murder and assault stemming from an incident in September 2008 during an interview with US officials in Ghazni, Afghanistan. Imprisonment was given. – allegations he denied.
She was the first woman suspected by the United States of being linked to al-Qaeda, but was never convicted.
At the age of 18, Siddiqui traveled to America to study at the prestigious MIT in Boston, where his brother lived, later earning a PhD in neuroscience from Brandeis University.
But after the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001, she came on the FBI’s radar for donations to Islamic organizations and was linked to purchases of $10,000 worth of night vision goggles and war books.
Suspected by the US that she joined al-Qaeda from the US, she returned to Pakistan and married into the family of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the architect of the 9/11 attacks.
She went missing from Karachi along with her three children around 2003.
Five years later, she arrived in Pakistan’s war-torn neighbor, Afghanistan, where she was arrested by local forces in the restive southeastern province of Ghazni.
