Arsenal of a neuroscientist

Missing Pakistani woman found in US prison

Next week, American lawyers will try to release 36-year-old Pakistani citizen Aafia Siddiqui (pictured) on bail. She was charged in Manhattan federal court on August 5 with attempting to kill American military personnel and FBI agents in Afghanistan.

The story begins on March 26, 2003, when Siddiqui and her three children left their parents' home in Karachi and disappeared. Lawyers say their client was thrown into a secret CIA prison in Bagram, Afghanistan. The US Department of Justice claims that the woman was hiding in Pakistan and Afghanistan until she was arrested on July 17 of this year at the house of the governor of the Afghan province of Ghazni. During a search of a woman who was “acting strangely,” police found instructions for making explosive devices, extracts from the book “The Anarchist’s Arsenal,” photographs of important objects in the United States, a map of Ghazni and a plan of the governor’s house.

How Siddiqui came to the Americans is described in different ways. Afghan police say that shortly after the arrest, a US patrol arrived and demanded her extradition, but was refused. Then the Americans disarmed the police, and Siddiqui rushed towards them, shouting that the Afghan police had treated her poorly, but they mistook her for a suicide bomber and wounded her with a pistol.

The prosecution claims that a captain, two FBI agents and an interpreter arrived at the police station for Siddiqui. When the captain put the machine gun on the floor, the prisoner grabbed it and shot twice at the Americans, but the translator managed to push the barrel away. After that, the officer wounded Siddiqui with two pistol shots, but they could not tie her up for a long time because she resisted and shouted in English that she would kill all the Americans. Moreover, it was in the USA in 2002 that the Pakistani woman received a doctorate in neurobiology after graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University.

Amnesty International believes that Siddiqui (her children are still unknown) has been held “in a secret US prison” since 2003 because she is the wife of the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the “number three terrorist” in al-Qaeda. (after Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri). Khalid Sheikh Muhammad was arrested in Pakistan in March 2003 and is being held at Guantanamo Bay. His trial is expected at the end of the year.

The defendant's sister Fauzia said at a press conference in Karachi on Tuesday: "Aafia did not commit any crime, she was raped and tortured for five years at the Bagram base until the Americans came up with this fake arrest in July." The Pakistan Public Human Rights Commission demanded that the country's government secure Siddiqui's release: "This case is an example of gross injustice committed in US prisons in Bagram, Guantanamo and elsewhere, against God knows how many Pakistanis are missing."

Alexander SAMOKHOTKIN