Chowrangi

Aafia Siddiqui, labeled as Neuro-scientist of Al-Qaeda, has finally reappeared. She went missing in 2003 during her trip from Karachi to Rawalpindi, along with her three children. Faisal Saleh Hayat, Interior Minister at that time, assured her sister Dr. Fauzia Siddiqui, that Aafia will safely return home soon, but that had not happen in 5 years.

Recently British journalist Yvonne Ridley held a press conference in Islamabad and raised her doubts that Prisoner 650 at United States run Bagram Airbase detention facility in Afghanistan, could be Dr. Aafia Siddiqui.

Ridley said she first learnt about the woman while reading a book by Guantanamo ex-detainee Moazzam Begg. Ridley added that one of the four Arabs who escaped from the Bagram cell in July 2005 also told a television channel that he had heard a woman’s cries and screams in the prison but never saw her. “I call her the Grey Lady of Bagram because she is almost a ghost, a spectre whose cries and screams continue to haunt those who heard her,” she said.

Yvonne Ridley was captured by Taliban in September 2001 for entering Afghanistan without legal documents. She was freed after 11-day detention and later embraced Islam in June 2003.

The Foreign Office, as usual, denied knowledge of the alleged detention of a Pakistani woman at Bagram Airbase and said that the allegation would be looked into.

The news of Aafia Siddiqui’s possible detention in Afghanistan caused an uproar and Jamat-e-Islami, along with civil society, held nation-wide protests. Mainstream political parties and ‘ruling coalition’ partners remained uninterested on this.

The protests vibrated across the world, causing Americans to declare her detention. In a lame statement from US Department of Justice (DOJ), it was stated that Aafia Siddiqui is arrested for attempting to kill United States Officers in Afghanistan. She has been transported to New York and will be presented tomorrow before a United States Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

According to the Complaint filed in Manhattan federal court:

On July 17, 2008, officers of the Ghazni Province Afghanistan National Police (“ANP”) observed Siddiqui outside the Ghazni governor’s compound. ANP officers questioned Siddiqui, regarded her as suspicious, and searched her handbag. In it, they found numerous documents describing the creation of explosives, as well as excerpts from the Anarchist’s Arsenal. Siddiqui’s papers included descriptions of various landmarks in the United States, including in New York City. Siddiqui was also in possession of substances that were sealed in bottles and glass jars.

Siddiqui, a 36-year-old Pakistani woman who previously resided in the United States, is charged in a criminal Complaint filed in the Southern District of New York with one count of attempting to kill United States officers and employees and one count of assaulting United States officers and employees. If convicted, Siddiqui faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on each charge.

Going through the “official” statement, one wonders why Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a PHD in Genetics, was walking around with “chemicals” and bomb-making how-tos. Also, why she had documents about various US landmarks in her bag? Maybe she was trying to plan another 9/11, while taking a walk near Ghazni’s Governor House?

Interestingly, no link of Al-Qaeda was mentioned in DOJ statement.

How would Pervez Musharraf, Shaukat Aziz, Faisal Saleh Hayat, Chaudhry Shujat Hussain, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari will react if their daughters and sisters will be similarly handed over to Americans?