Dr. Aafia Siddiqui meets her sister after 20 years: 'Seeing the glass wall, the smile turned into sadness

 

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui meets her sister after 20 years: 'Seeing the glass wall, the smile turned into sadness

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, imprisoned in America for almost 20 years, has met her sister Dr. Fauzia Siddiqui, and Jamaat-e-Islami Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan.

Senator Mushtaq has released some details in this regard after a 'three-hour long meeting' with Dr. Aafia, who is incarcerated in the Fort Worth jail in the state of Texas.

In March 2003, Pakistani neuroscientist Dr. Aafia went missing from Karachi. He was sentenced to 86 years in prison in the United States in 2010 for attacking American soldiers in Afghanistan. The US Department of Justice had declared him a member and facilitator of al-Qaeda'.

However, supporters of Aafia Siddiqui criticize this decision of punishment. For the past several years, a movement has been going on for his return to Pakistan, which is headed by his own sister, Dr. Fawzia Siddiqui.

So far, the American authorities or the Pakistani Foreign Office have not issued any statement regarding this meeting.

'The smile turned into sadness after seeing the glass wall'

Dr. Aafia has had two meetings with her sister, the first time she was alone, while in the second meeting, she was accompanied by lawyer Clive Stafford Smith and Jamaat-e-Islami Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan.

Jamaat-e-Islami Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan has said that the duration of the first meeting was two and a half hours, during which Aafia told her sister that she did not know about her mother's death.

They claim that during the meeting, Dr. Fauzia was not even allowed to hug and shake hands with Aafia. They claim that Dr. Fawzia was not even allowed to show Dr. Aafia pictures of her children.

They say that in the place where this meeting took place, there was a thick glass in the middle of a prison room between the two sisters.

About the second three-hour meeting, in which Senator Mushtaq was also present, he says, 'Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, dressed in a white scarf and khaki prison dress, said during the meeting that she remembers her mother and children all the time. come.'

Mushtaq Ahmed Khan claimed that Dr. Aafia's front teeth had fallen out due to the attack in the jail while she was also having difficulty hearing due to a head injury.

Lawyer Clive Stafford says Afia told him she wanted to know if her newborn son Sulaiman "was dead when he was kidnapped".

According to him, Aafia and Fauzia recited their childhood poem 'I'm Shirley Temple the Girl with Curly Hair'.

Clive Stafford claimed that Dr. Aafia smiled when she saw Fawzia but 'turned to sadness when she saw the glass wall that prevented them from embracing'.

'Meetings and conversations were recorded

After meeting Aafia Siddiqui, Senator Mushtaq claimed that the three-hour meeting and conversation in the jail was being "completely recorded". Aafia's health was weak, tears in her eyes again and again, she was sad and afraid of prison torture.

He claimed that Aafia's 'four upper front teeth were broken, and her hearing was difficult due to the head injury. She was repeatedly saying, "Get me out of this hell."

According to the AP news agency, in July 2022, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui was attacked by another inmate inside the prison, as a result of which she suffered injuries.

According to court documents related to the attack, Aafia Siddiqui's lawyers said an inmate "stabbed her in the face with a mug filled with hot coffee."

According to him, during the attack, another female inmate punched and kicked him, which caused him injuries and he was taken to the prison's medical unit in a wheelchair.

According to court documents, the attack left Dr. Aafia with scars around her eyes and a three-inch gash below her left eye.

Aafia Siddiqui: American-educated woman whose arrival in Afghanistan is still a mystery

American-educated Dr. Aafia went missing from Karachi in March 2003. Her family claims that Dr. Aafia was detained along with her three children from her residence in Karachi.

However, Pakistani and American officials have been denying it.

The US revealed her detention in Afghanistan in July 2007, alleging that Dr. Aafia had attempted to kill Dr. Aafia by firing at American soldiers.

According to a statement released by the FBI and New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly in the case against Aafia Siddiqui, Dr. Aafia was arrested in Afghanistan's Ghazni province.

According to U.S. officials, Afghan police found some documents in the glass jars and bottles containing bomb-making methods.

The statement said that Dr. Aafia was locked in a room when a team of FBI and American soldiers arrived to investigate her, they fired two shots at her from behind the curtain, but they could not hit anyone.

Dr. Aafia was injured in the retaliatory firing of an American soldier and the ensuing skirmish.

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, in a meeting with a delegation of Pakistani senators in the United States, claimed that before being brought to the United States, she was sent to Afghanistan.

He was tortured in the American prison of Bagram in 1999.

Mushahid Hussain Syed, who was present at the meeting in 2008, later told the media that he was told by Dr. Aafia Siddiqui that he was abducted from Islamabad and injected with anesthesia. gone.

Mushahid Hussain Syed said that according to Dr. Aafia Siddiqui when she regained consciousness, she was imprisoned in Bagram Jail.

Why was Aafia Siddiqui sentenced to 86 years?

He was tried in the US and sentenced to 86 years in prison in 2010.

While pronouncing the verdict on Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, the judge said that the sentence for the murderous attack on American citizens is 20 years, the sentence for the attack on American officials and officials is 20 years, and the attack on the officials and officials of the American government and the army with weapons is 20 years. The sentence is 20 years, the sentence for firing a weapon during the commission of a violent crime is life imprisonment, and the sentence for each assault on any official and employee of the US military and government is eight years or 24 years.

According to the secret documents (Guantanamo Files) published by the British newspaper The Guardian, Pakistani neuroscientist Dr. Aafia Siddiqui tried to smuggle explosives into the United States and offered to make biological weapons for Al-Qaeda. was

The charges stemmed from a U.S. intelligence analysis and information obtained through direct interrogation of at least three senior members of al-Qaeda, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks on the United States.

However, this information cannot be independently verified and there is a possibility that these statements may have been obtained from the accused through torture.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, known as 'KSM' in intelligence circles, was waterboarded 183 times during his detention.

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is also said to be the wife of the nephew of Al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Muhammad.

According to the British newspaper Guardian, according to the information obtained from the Guantanamo files, Dr. Aafia was involved in the Al-Qaeda cell in Karachi between 2002 and 2033, and the members of this cell, after the success of the attacks of September 11th, the United States, London. Planned further attacks at Heathrow Airport and Pakistan.

According to the documents, the members of this cell planned to smuggle explosives into the US under the guise of exporting textile goods. According to the statement of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, this explosive material was intended to target important economic targets in the United States. The operation was to be carried out through an import-export business run by Saifullah Pracha, a Pakistani businessman.

According to Saifullah Paracha's file at the Guantanamo detention center, his responsibility in the project was to obtain rental housing and provide administrative support.

It should be noted that Saifullah Paracha was recently released after 20 years of imprisonment.

Dr. Aafia was alleged to have gone to America in 2003 to help a man named Majid Khan obtain US travel documents in connection with the same operation. Majid Khan was to carry out bomb attacks on petrol pumps and water treatment plants in America.

Majid Khan has also been released by America this year.

However, according to secret documents, Majid Khan gave a statement during detention that he had given Dr. Aafia money, and photos and filled in a form to request asylum in America to make his trip to America possible.

After Dr. Aafia went to America, she opened a post office box in the name of Majid Khan, for which she used her driver's license.

However, this plan failed and after Majid Khan was arrested in Pakistan, he was transferred to Guantanamo Detention Center.