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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-pakistan-aafia-siddiqui-war-on-terror-protest">middleeasteye.net</a>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">'War on terror': US protesters rally in support of incarcerated Aafia Siddiqui</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">By Umar A Farooq - October 20, 2021<br></div>
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<div><p>Dozens of protesters stood outside <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/www.middleeasteye.net/countries/pakistan" target="_blank">Pakistan's</a>
consulate in New York City on Wednesday, calling for the release of
Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman who is currently serving 86 years in
prison in what civil liberties groups and activists say was an unjust
sentencing as a result of the US "war on terror".</p>
<p>The demonstrators, who rallied in the same city where Siddiqui was
convicted and sentenced more than 10 years ago, carried signs demanding
she be repatriated to Pakistan, while chanting "Free our sister Aafia"
and "Afia, Aafia, don't cry, we won't let your case die."</p>
<blockquote>
<p>'We want to make sure her case isn't forgotten'</p>
<p><em>- Anwaar Huk, protest organiser</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>"The Pakistani government needs to pressure the US government to send
her back," Anwaar Huk, an organiser of the rally, told Middle East Eye.</p>
<p>"This isn't an anti-Pakistan rally, Aafia is a Pakistani patriot,"
Huk said, "but we want to make sure her case isn't forgotten."</p>
<p>A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and PhD
scholar in neuroscience from Brandeis University, Siddiqui disappeared
from her home in Karachi in 2003 and was later found in Ghazni,
Afghanistan in 2008.</p>
<p>She was arrested, charged, and convicted of the <a href="https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/newyork/press-releases/2010/nyfo092310.htm" target="_blank">attempted murder</a> of US officials and nationals, and later sentenced to 86 years of imprisonment.</p>
<p>In the indictment presented to the US court, prosecutors had said
that Siddiqui possessed notes referring to a "mass casualty attack",
with multiple locations listed as the target, including the Empire State
Building and the Brooklyn Bridge.</p>
<p>Cage, a London-based rights group, has made <a href="https://www.cage.ngo/product/aafia-siddiqui-a-case-of-lies-and-inconsistencies-report" target="_blank">accusations</a> that her case is rife with inconsistencies, contradictory allegations and evidence obtained under torture.</p>
<p>While she was never charged with links to the militant group
al-Qaeda, multiple attempts were made to connect her to the
organisation, according to Cage.</p>
<p>"Aafia Siddiqui's case remains one of the most troubling in the
sordid history of the 'War on Terror'. It is time this chapter of Aafia
Siddiqui’s life was closed. She needs to go home and be with the
children she never saw grow up," Moazzem Begg, an ex-Guantanamo prisoner
and outreach director at Cage, said in a statement in August.</p>
<div>
<p><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/new%20york%20aafia%20siddiqui%20rally%20october%202021%202.jpeg" alt="Protesters gather near the Pakistani consulate in New York City to demand the release of Aafia Siddiqui." style="margin-right: 25px;" width="452" height="339"></p>
Protesters gather near the Pakistani consulate in New York City to demand the release of Aafia Siddiqui (MEE/Sean Mathews)</div>
<p>The protesters in New York, part of a five-city mobilisation
effort to raise awareness about the case, said that Siddiqui has been
wrongly imprisoned by the US.</p>
<p>"I'm here to be a part of the protest," Aila, a protester from
Canada, told MEE. "Aafia Siddiqi's imprisonment is a crime and something
I am totally against.”</p>
<h3>Assault in prison</h3>
<p>Huk said this was the third rally organised in the past month, with
the first two taking place in the Texan cities of Houston and Dallas.
The next protest will be held in Boston, followed by a final
demonstration in Washington.</p>
<p>Civil liberties groups <a href="https://www.cage.ngo/aafia-siddiqui-calls-for-public-support-after-enduring-serious-assault-in-texas-prison" target="_blank">reported</a>
in August that Siddiqui had suffered a "serious violent assault" at the
hands of another inmate, and her lawyers had called on prison
authorities to ensure her safety.</p>
<p>Following the assault, Siddiqui was placed in administrative solitary confinement for an unknown period of time.</p>
<p>"During my last visit with Dr Siddiqui, I was shocked to see visible
burns around her eyes, an approximately 3-inch scar near her left eye, a
wound on her right cheek covered in toothpaste and a small piece of
paper, and bruises on her right arm and legs," Marwa Elbially,
Siddiqui's lawyer, said at the time.</p>
<p>"It is important that we receive reassurance that Dr Siddiqui is not
punished for being a victim of a vicious assault and is safe from future
attacks."</p>
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