The Pakistani neuroscientist jailed in the United States for over a decade, Dr Aafia Siddiqui finally met her younger sister Dr Fauzia Siddiqui after 20 years at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Texas.
According to the media reports, the news has been shared by Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan in a statement on social networking website Twitter today (Wednesday, May 31). He said that another meeting with Dr Aafia Siddiqui is scheduled for Thursday, in which he and, the prominent human rights activist who also helped liberate Abdul Rabbani and Ahmed Rabbani from the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison, Clive Stafford-Smith will meet with the neurologist.
Also read: Storiya Khan, sister of Mashal Khan, completes graduation in New York
JI Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan said that he will meet Dr Aafia in prison along with Dr Fauzia and Clive Stafford-Smith. He also shed light on the incarcerated doctor’s plight; however, he said that this has opened up a way for more “discussions and meetings. He urged people to raise their voices for Dr Aafia’s release.
Moreover, he recounted the events of the long-delayed meeting, which lasted for two and a half hours and in which the imprisoned doctor narrated her grim circumstances and the tortures she was being subjected to. This meeting took place after 20 years and continued for two and a half hours, Dr. Fauzia wasn’t allowed to hug or shake hands with her sister. Dr Fauzia was not allowed to show Dr Aafia the pictures of her children. The meeting took place inside a jail room with a thick glass between them. Aafia was in a white scarf and khaki jail dress., he said.
“In the first hour of the two-and-a-half-hour meeting, Dr Aafia shared the details of the torture she was going through every day. Dr Aafia said that she misses her mother and children all the time (she does not know about the death of their mother). Dr Aafia’s front teeth were knocked out/lost due to an attack in prison. She also had difficulty hearing due to a head injury,” the Senator added.
