Thaindian News

Washington, Mar. 8 (ANI): The uncle of terrorism-accused Pakistani national, Dr Aafia Siddiqi, has told a New York jury that the neuroscientist visited him in Islamabad in January 2008, asking him to help her to reach the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The News quoted the New York Times as saying that S H Farooqi gave a signed affidavit to the authorities swearing that Dr Aafia visited him in January 2008.

A 12-member jury in New York convicted Dr Aafia in February this year for trying to kill US troops in Afghanistan in 2008.

According to court document, Dr. Aafia had a long involvement in Jihadi causes, even while a student at M.I.T. and, later, at Brandeis University.

The FBI had accused her of opening a post office box in 2002 in the name of Majid Khan - a suspected al-Qaeda member - who is being held in the United States military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Court documents also show that after getting divorce from her first husband, Dr. Muhammad Amjad Khan, who is the father of her three children, she married Ammar Baluchi, the nephew of the suspected 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Shaikh Mohammad.

Dr Aafia disappeared from 2003 to 2008 and her whereabouts and those of her three children remained a mystery during this time.

While her sister Dr. Fauzia Siddiqui has attributed her disappearance to a conspiracy of Pakistani intelligence agencies under which they handed her over to the American officials, her first husband Dr. Amjad Khan claims that Dr Aafia was hiding in Pakistan all this while.

Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif have promised to push for the release of Dr Aafia, who they described as “daughter of the nation”.

Last week, Pakistan Senate passed a resolution to demand her return to Pakistan. (ANI)