30 July 2008

Please respond to this appeal from our friends in Pakistan

FAISAL, who blogs at United4Justice, sent this to AOC's email comments:

A Pakistani Dr. Afia Siddiqi who was kidnapped(with her little children) by Pakistani and USA agencies in 2003 is in Bagram Jail in Afghanistan.

According to media reports she has faced severe torture and due to constant rape by allied force members she has lost her mind.

Please support the appeal for Dr. Afia :

http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/support.php?ua=UAC-167-200

Here is a full reprint of additional material from The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) by way of FAISAL:

Where is Dr Afia Siddiqui? AHRC

Dr. Afia Siddiqui [Photo] left her mother’s house in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi, Sindh province, along with her three children, in a Metro-cab on March 30, 2003 to catch a flight for Rawalpindi, Punjab province, but never reached the airport. The press reports claimed that Dr. Afia had been picked-up by Pakistani intelligence agencies while on her way to the airport and initial reports suggested that she was handed over to the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). At the time of her arrest she was 30 years and the mother of three sons the oldest of which was four and the youngest only one month.

A few days later an American news channel, NBC, reported that Afia had been arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of facilitating money transfers for terror networks of Osama Bin Laden. The mother of the victim, Mrs. Ismat (who has since passed away) termed the NBC report absurd. She went on to say that Dr. Afia is a neurological scientist and has been living with her husband, Amjad, in the USA for several years.

On April 1, 2003, a small news item was published in an Urdu daily with reference to a press conference of the then Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat. When questioned with regard to Dr. Afia’s arrest he denied that she had been arrested. This was followed by another Urdu daily article on April 2 regarding another press conference in which the same minister said Dr. Afia was connected to Al Qaeda and that she had not been arrested as she was absconding. He added: “You will be astonished to know about the activities of Dr. Afia” A Monthly English magazine of Karachi in a special coverage on Dr. Afia reported that one week after her disappearance, a plain clothed intelligence went to her mother’s house and warned her, “We know that you are connected to higher-ups but do not make an issue out of your daughter’s disappearance.” According to the report the mother was threatened her with ‘dire consequences’ if she made a fuss.

Whilst Dr. Afia’s whereabouts remain unknown, there are reports of a woman called ‘Prisoner 650′ is being detained in Afghanistan’s Bagram prison and that she has been tortured to the point where she has lost her mind. Britain’s Lord Nazeer Ahmed, (of the House of Lords), asked questions in the House about the condition of Prisoner 650 who, according to him is physically tortured and continuously raped by the officers at prison. Lord Nazeer has also submitted that Prisoner 650 has no separate toilet facilities and has to attend to her bathing and movements in full view of the other prisoners.

Also, on July 6, 2008 a British journalist, Yvonne Ridley, called for help for a Pakistani woman she believes has been held in isolation by the Americans in their Bagram detention centre in Afghanistan, for over four years. “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,” Ms Ridley said at a press conference.

Ms Ridley, who went to Pakistan to appeal for help, said the case came to her attention when she read the book, The Enemy Combatant, by a former Guantanamo detainee, Moazzam Begg. After being seized in February 2002 in Islamabad, Mr Begg was held in detention centres in Kandahar and Bagram for about a year before he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay. He recounted his experiences in the book after his release in 2005. Mr. Imran Khan, leader of Justice Party (T.I) suspects that prisoner 650 is the Dr. Afia Siddiqui and USA and Pakistani authorities are hiding facts of ‘Prisoner 650′.

To date, neither the American nor the Pakistani government have come out about the arrest and detention of Dr. Afia in either Bagram or Guantanamo Bay where suspected terrorists are held. On December 30, 2003 Dr. Fawzia Siddiqui, Dr. Afia elder sister met with Mr Faisal Saleh Hayat at Islamabad with Mr Ejazul Haq, MNA, regarding the whereabouts of Dr. Afiai. Mr Faisal told Dr. Fawzia and Mr Ejazul Haq that according to his information Dr. Afia Siddiqui had already been released and that she (Dr. Fawzia) should go home and wait for a phone call from her sister.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Dr. Afia Siddiqui, who studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, for about 10 years and did her PhD in genetics, returned to Pakistan in 2002. Having failed to get a suitable job, she again visited the US on a valid visa in February 2003 to search for a job and to submit an application to the US immigration authorities. She moved there freely and came back to Karachi by the end of February 2003 after renting a post office box in her name in Maryland for the receipt of her mail. It has been claimed by the FBI (Newsweek International, June 23, 2003, issue) that the box was hired for one Mr Majid Khan, an alleged member of Al Qaeda residing in Baltimore.

Throughout March 2003 flashes of the particulars of Dr. Afia were telecast with her photo on American TV channels and radios painting her as a dangerous Al Qaeda person needed by the FBI for interrogation. On learning of the FBI campaign against her she went underground in Karachi and remained so till her kidnapping. The June 23, 2003, issue of Newsweek International was exclusively devoted to Al Qaeda. The core of the issue was an article “Al Qaeda’s Network in America”. The article has three photographs of so-called Al Qaeda members - Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Dr. Afia Siddiqui and Ali S. Al Marri of Qatar who has studied in the US like Dr. Siddiqui and had long since returned to his homeland. In this article, which has been authored by eight journalists who had access to FBI records, the only charge leveled against Dr. Afia is that “she rented a post-office box to help a former resident of Baltimore named Majid Khan (alleged Al Qaeda suspect) to help establish his US identity.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

False allegations by US government on DR. Afia Siddqi(prisoner 650)
Posted on August 6, 2008 by united4justice | Edit

Dr. Afia is fianlly being prosecuted in Newyork court , charged with the allegations of attacking a US officer and links with Al-Qaida Afia who was in real bad condition during the proceedings denied all the allegations.

The falsehood can be understood by fbi claim that she was arrested with her elder son from Ghazni in Afganistan whereas media reports at that time in 2003 and proofs are there that she was arrested from Karachi near a petrol pump at NIPA and leave aside the allegations that bomb making information was recovered from her bag .

Above all where were those charges during the last 5 years when she was badly tortured,raped and even today no one knows where her 3 children are (dead or alive).

We appeal to the civil society of the world and human rights organizations especially in USA to raise voice on the issue and support an innocent women who has already suffered alot for nothing and show that humanity as a whole is not unjust and cruel.

Anonymous said...

Please read the case study on Dr. Aafia

http://united4justice.wordpress.com/2008/10/23/dr-aafia-case-dont-blame-the-victim/

Anonymous said...

Supreme Court of Pakistan’s remarkable decision can change the future course of our country.

August 2, 2009

On Friday after a long delay of more than 4 hours SC of Pakistan gave a remarkable judgement of declaring the 3rd November 2007 as unconstitutional,illegal and extra judicial.

The 14 member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Ahmed Chaudhary who was restored by the government on 16 March 2009 after immense pressure from a long march by lawyers,civil society and politicians on Friday also rejected the unconstitutional amendments made by former dictator Musharraf during the time of emergency (between 3rd November 2007 and 15 December 2007).

SC sent the cases of those judges who violated the judgement of 7 member bench which declared 3rd November 2007 actions as unconstitutional and ordered the judiciary not to take oath under the PCO of dictator to Supreme judicial council.

Also the Supreme Court declared:

1) The sacking of judges by Musharraf on 3rd November as unconstitutional.

2) The removal of judges appointed during the PCO period and the Dogar period.

3) The tenure of Abdul Hameed Dogar (The PCO CJ appointed by Musharraf) as unconstitutional.

4) The increase in number of SC judges to 29 through finance bill by current parliament as unconstitutional.

5) The Islamabad High Court as unconstitutional and now after this decision all the judges of Islamabad HC are dismissed from their service.

6) The Ordinances issued by the dictator are referred to the parliament for review.



However in the decision SC did not change the status of :

1) The presidential oath taken by Dogar from Zardari.

2) The financial and administrative decisions taken by Dogar.

3) The cases related to day to day personal issues settled by the courts during that time.

One thing which didn’t go in favor of the government apart from the removal of jiala judges is the change in status of NRO which was approved by the Dogar court is now a thing to be decided means people including or specially Zardari are now not indemnified from the cases of corruption.

The court has indeed played their part expected from them (people also expect more good news from them) and now the ball is in the court of the national parliament to show what they are capable of doing.