In defence of Aafia Siddiqui

THIS refers to Shafiq Murad`s letter `Malala vs Aafia` (Oct 21) wherein he has tried to distort the facts about Dr Aafia Siddiqui, dubbing her an American national and an aide ofterrorists.

Perhaps the writer does not know that Dr Aafia has not been convicted of being associated with Al Qaeda or the Taliban. In fact, she has been sentenced to jail for 86 years for attacking an American soldier in the Afghan province of Ghazni.

I was one of the participants of an eight-member delegation that visited the United States under Pakistan-US journalists` exchange programme last year. The Pakistani journalists had a meeting with senior FBI officials in New York as part of the tour. During the meeting an FBI official, who claimed to be aware of the arrest, interrogation and prosecution process which ultimately led to Dr Aafia`s conviction, was very upset over a `hue and cry` in Pakistan with respect to the matter.He asserted that the FBI had ample reasons and proofs to believe that Dr Aafia was an Al Qaeda operative, a fund-raiser and had been associated with an alleged senior Al Qaeda member, Adnan Al Shukri Jumma.

The FBI official was repeatedly asked by the Pakistani journalists that if the agency had ample evidences against Dr Aafia, why was she thennottnedunderthose charges? Why was she charged with trying to kill a US soldier in Afghanistan? The FBI official had no answer except that `I cannot comment on that. It is not within my purview.

The fact is that Dr Aafia had been arrested by a joint team of FBI and Pakistani security officials in Karachi in 2003. She was immediately shifted to Bagram airbase in Kandahar. According to her family, one of her three children died when he was thrown on the floor by an investigator during her detention. Luckily, her eldest son,Ahmed and daughter Mariyam, were handed over to the family a few years ago.

It was a British journalist, Yvonne Ridley, who revealed the presence of Dr Aafia at the Bagram detention centre in 2008. A joint campaign launched by the US and the UKbased human rights groups, Ms Ridley and Imran Khan, had forced the US forces to stage this drama otherwise she might have spent her whole life in that illegal detention.

How surprising it is that a woman, who had gone so weak and lost her senses due to torture by interrogators, attacked a US soldier, but instead of harming him, she received two bullets.

Ironically, the court declared the two important issues raised by Dr Aafia`s lawyer, i.e., her illegal detention for five years, and torture by investigators, irrelevant.

A former US attorney-general, Ramsey Clarke, and other American lawyers, who visited Pakistan and met Dr Aafia`s family last month,categorically stated that her conviction had raised questions on the US justice system.

If US secret agencies had even minor evidence against Dr Aafia regarding her involvement in terrorist activities, she would have been tried for that.

I believe we should avoid exploiting attack on Malala to justify a blatant injustice with Dr Aafia. It will earn nothing but aggravate the already brewing polarisation in our society.

The Pakistani government should learn a lesson from the US government which went beyond justice to get Raymond Davis released. Mr Clarke and other lawyers are of the view that if the government of Pakistan wants Dr Aafia back home, she can be back home in weeks.

For Mr Murad`s information, Dr Aafia is not an American citizen which has been clarified by her family many times.