Islamabad - Afghan authorities on Monday handed over to
Pakistan's embassy in Kabul the son of a Pakistani scientist allegedly
linked to al-Qaeda, and held in US custody, 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.'
Ahmad was later in the evening was handed over to his aunt, Fauzia
Siddiqui, following his arrival in Islamabad.
Fauzia did not allow him to talk to the media, saying he was too
terrified. 'During the custody he was given so many names that he does
not know that his actual name is Muhammad Ahmad,' she said.
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 what she said was her
humiliating treatment and traumatized condition.
US Attorney Michael J Gracia had accused Siddiqui of grabbing the
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 body.
Siddiqui was indicted in absentia on 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 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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