US: ‘Dr Afia’s case injustice to missing people’

WITH the US finally admitting having Dr Afia Siddiqui in its custody, one of the most brutal cases of suppression of individual freedom has become to unravel, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) says in its statement.The HRCP, in its statement issued on Tuesday, called on civil society and human rights organisations to make concerted efforts for the release of all missing people and to ensure justice for Dr Afia.The statement said the public pressure had compelled the US to admit that Dr Afia was in its custody. While the Pakistani government had belatedly begun to admit that it had some responsibility regarding Afia, it had a lot of explaining to do as to who had been detaining her since she was picked up from Karachi in 2003 along with her three children, the statement added.To say that Afia had been taken into custody only on July 21, 2008, was a blatant lie, the statement said, adding that the insinuation that she had been hiding since 2003 was a travesty of truth and an affront of the people’s commonsense. It said that Dr Afia’s case was a reminder of the grave injustice done to numerous missing Pakistanis kept in US detention centres in Bagram, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere in the world.

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WASHINGTON: A Pakistani scientist Dr. Afia Siddiqui accused of shooting at U.S. officers while in Afghan custody last month has been extradited to the United States.According to US media reports, onn July 18 Siddiqui shot at two FBI special agents, a U.S. Army warrant officer, an Army captain and military interpreters who unknowingly entered a room where she was being held unsecured at an Afghan facility. The warrant officer returned fire with a pistol, shooting Siddiqui at least once. She struggled with the officers before she lost consciousness, and was then given medical attention.US officials said that Afia Siddiqui was arrested outside the Ghazni governor's compound where they found bomb-making instructions, excerpts from the "Anarchist's Arsenal," papers with descriptions of U.S. landmarks and substances sealed in bottles and glass jars.