Islamabad - Afghan authorities on Monday handed over the son
of a Pakistani scientist allegedly linked to al-Qaeda held in US
custody to Pakistan's embassy in Kabul, officials said.
Aafia Siddiqui, 36, a US-educated neuroscientist, has been charged
in a Manhattan court with assault on and attempted murder of her US
investigators. She was arrested in Afghanistan's Ghazni province on
July 17.
Siddiqui's 11-year-old son, Ali Hassan, also known as Muhammad
Ahmad, was with his mother when she was detained while allegedly
carrying designs for explosive devices and descriptions of US
landmarks in her handbag.
'Afghan Foreign Ministry official Daud Panjshiri handed over Ali
Hassan to Pakistan's Charge d'Affairs Muhammad Daud at around 10:30
am (0500 GMT),' Pakistan embassy spokesman Muhammad Naeem told
Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by phone.
'The child is in good health,' said Naeem, adding that the mission
was making efforts to send Hassan to Pakistan 'at the earliest.'
Siddiqui, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and mother of three, refused to appear in the federal court in New
York earlier this month to protest against her humiliating treatment
and traumatized condition.
US Attorney Michael J Gracia had accused Siddiqui of grabbing
rifle of a US warrant officer and firing shots on a team of FBI
agents and US military personnel who arrived at a detention centre to
interrogate her on July 18.
She failed to hit any of the US personnel but one of the two shots
fired by the warrant officer with his service pistol hit Siddiqui in
the torso.
Siddiqui was indicted in absentia for five counts of attempted
murder and assault and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison
on each count.
She went missing in March 2003 along with her three children in
the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi. Her family alleged that
she was picked up by Pakistani intelligence agents after the FBI
issued an alert because of her alleged links with al-Qaeda.
It was widely believed that the Pakistani intelligence agencies
handed her over to US authorities who supposedly kept her at a
detention centre close to the Afghan capital Kabul in the following
years.
Allegations also appeared in the media that she was exposed to
severe torture and even rape during her days at the detention centre
at Bagram airbase.
She surfaced again in Ghazni following an intensive campaign by
human rights organizations for her recovery and a petition filed in a
Pakistani court.
The whereabouts of her two other children, a son and a daughter,
are still unknown.
USA
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