Leaving her mother’s home in Karachi with the aim to go to Rawalpindi on 30th March 2003, the MIT graduate Dr. Afia Siddiqui would have thought of her home country as a slightly more sovereign state than it turned out for her. Courtesy of our at-your-service unrepresentative government, she never reached her destination. Instead, she ended up at one of the worst detention center in a hostile territory. Reports have it that before making it to the airport, she was picked up by Pakistani intelligence agencies and was handed over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Except for occasional news items in the press and on the news channels, no one really had any credible information regarding the whereabouts of the unfortunate mother of three along with her children. Reportedly, her family has been threatened repeatedly by people wearing plain cloths claiming to be associated to the intelligence agencies.
The reports regarding a Pakistani woman detained at the Afghanistan’s Bagram prison led to the speculations that the woman is Dr. Afia Sidddiqui. The woman is called ‘Prisoner 650’. A member of the British House of Lords, Lord Nazir Ahmed, took the point up for discussion in the House. He informed the House that the prisoner was continuously raped and physically and psychologically tortured to a point that she had become a psycho.
Moreover, a British journalist, Yvonne Ridley, accounted the story of a Pakistani woman imprisoned for over four years called ‘Prisoner 650’ at the Bagram prison, on 6 July 2008. Agonizing as it sounds this is how Ms Ridley put it in her words: “I call her the ‘grey lady’ because she is almost a ghost, a specter whose cries and screams continues to haunt those who heard her”. Pakistani politician and the leader of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, Imran Khan revealed his feelings that the ‘Prisoner 650’ is Dr. Afia Siddiqui. He lashed out at Pakistani and US authorities for obscuring facts relating to the Prisoner 650.
Various reports are also connecting her abduction to the arrest of Khaled Sheikh Muhammad. It is assumed that Sheikh might have given up her name as a top al Qaeda operative during interrogation. Throughout the month of her arrest, her pictures were televised in different news channels in the United States by the FBI portraying her as a treacherous al Qaeda operative. However, on a closer inquiry, one would be astonished to realize that the only stated charge against her was rental of a post box for Majid Khan (alleged al Qaeda suspect).
Under relentless media pressure created by a number of human rights organizations, FBI reportedly admitted on 1 August 2008 to the lawyer hired by her brother that Dr. Afia has been in the custody of FBI in a solitary confinement in Afghanistan and is in serious medical conditions. If it is true then it will be the first time during the last five years that the authorities involved have acknowledged the arrest and imprisonment of Dr. Afia Siddiqui. Since then, there are no signs of any decline in the unbearable pain of her family. The distressed family is said to be on the receiving end of unidentified threatening phone calls.
The FBI, however, would not disclose the place of detention and the detaining authority of Dr. Afia and her three American-born children. Neither did the FBI agents mention the fate that Dr. Afia and her children may face in the future. It Left the family bewildered about the probable outcome of the hurting experience.
The grave human tragedy has more dimensions than one gets on the face-value. The tragedy reveals the extent to which Pakistani rulers can go in order to show their worth to the sole superpower. They have a strong belief that unfortunately translates into their policies that authorization for their rule is exogenous – flowing from Washington. Human costs to get such approval are a tiny distraction at best.
The incident that came to the limelight indicates only the tip of the iceberg. While there may not be a more painful tale than that of Dr. Afia, there sure are many others who have been kept in custody in the most inhumane manner without a trial. Amnesty International claims that more than 560 Pakistanis are reported missing and are believed to be kidnapped by Pakistani or US intelligence agencies.
While pleading for Dr. Afia and others, one should not forget that they may be involved in the activities they are held responsible for. However, the allegations of such an involvement do not warrant seizure of citizens and their handing over to a foreign country. This would rob Pakistanis of what little confidence they still have in the government and justice in Pakistan.
Dr. Afia case also makes the cooperation between the intelligence agencies of the United States and Pakistan public. Pakistani ISI has come under severe criticism from the official and unofficial circles of the United States in the recent weeks. This incident goes a long way in suggesting that the ISI is not as non-compliant as an intelligence agency as is believed in the United States.
More than anything else, however, the unpleasant incident makes known the love and respect of official America for the values of human rights for which they have invaded foreign lands. It has not been long enough for us to forget that Afghanistan and Iraq were attacked by the United States for sending home their inhumane governments. The atrocities that the United States has committed ever since, would have taken Saddam aback.
Bent upon teaching other civilizations the value of gender equality, the official United States has not found it difficult to live with the fact that a woman has been named Prisoner 650. The name/number might be an obvious ploy to conceal the gender identity of the prisoner. Where are all the American women rights organizations? The ‘President 43’ would do well for his nation if he realizes that ideals have kept the United States an integrated people. Losing these ideals would mean a loss of the binding force that has kept ethnically diverse Americans as a single people.
Till the filing of this piece there were reports that Dr Afia was taken to the US and the Pakistani government was trying consular access to her.
On our part, we should realize that victimizing our own people for the sake of an imperialist superpower would leave us with no excuse for being shocked at attacks from a section of our population. We have paid too dearly in various ways at our own peril. At the end of the day, we are left with allegations from our allies and violence from our population.
Email: aameraza@gmail.com
