Fawzia Siddiqui said she was ninety per cent hopeful that Aafia would soon be coming to Pakistan now. This positivity comes following Imran Khan’s election victory as Fawzia suggests that ‘we are’ only a few signatures away from her release.
The sister of Dr Aafia Siddiqui claims the Pakistani government turned down an earlier offer by the US to release the imprisoned Pakistani neuroscientist in exchange for Raymond Davis, a CIA operative who gunned down two men in Lahore in 2011.
Dr Aafia Siddiqui is a Pakistani neuroscientist and mother of three who has been jailed in a US prison since 2010. She was sentenced to 86 years in prison for the attempted murder of two US soldiers, charges she vehemently denies.
The Pakistani neuroscientist has been dubbed by some as ” Lady al-Qaeda “, Siddiqui was arrested in Afghanistan in 2008 and flown to the United States and has been incarcerated since then.
Dr Aafia allegedly went missing for five years before she was discovered in Afghanistan. It is said that she snatched a gun during interrogation in Ghazni and tried to shoot a US soldier. She has also been accused of working for Al Qaeda.
Fawzia, her sister, who was speaking in an interview with Pakistani broadcaster Geo News on Thursday, She also said that Washington offered the release of her sister for Bowe Bergdahl, a former US army officer who spent years in Afghan Taliban captivity until his release in 2014.
“There were several moments in which Aafia’s return could have been possible. There was the time of Raymond Davis. I have clear-cut evidence that the US offered Aafia for his exchange. But for these people [Pakistan government], other things became higher priorities,” she said.
Her sister’s comments come after the Pakistani government raised the issue of “respecting the human and legal rights” of Dr Aafia with US Envoy Alice Wells who visited Islamabad earlier this week.
Fawzia Siddiqui said she was ninety per cent hopeful that Aafia would soon be coming to Pakistan now. Positivity comes following Imran Khan’s election victory as Fauzia suggests that only a few signatures away from her release.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Thursday that the government wishes to see a decline in the “difficulties” faced by Dr Aafia Siddiqui.
“We will definitely try,” was Qureshi’s response when asked by a reporter how successful the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government would be in bringing the imprisoned neuroscientist to Pakistan.
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