Dr. Afia Siddiqui, a PhD in genetics from MIT, was abducted from Karachi in 2003 after a highly publicised FBI-led manhunt for alleged "top operatives" of the Al-Qaeda network. She has been in solitary confinement at Bagram Air Base near Kabul, unable to communicate with the outside world for more than five years. The fate of her three children ([1], [2]), kidnapped at the same time, remains completely unknown. She herself was simply known as prisoner # 650 ([3]), never seen by other inmates of the infamous "pre-processing" center on the road to Guantanamo Bay prison. Never seen, but frequently heard crying out in pain.
Five years. Alone. Tortured. Divorced from family and friends, worst of all, without a clue as to the location of her children.
How much did the Pakistan Army and its serving COAS, President (ex-CE) of Pakistan, General (now retired) Pervez Musharraf, get paid for this particular case of illegal rendition and detention? How accurate a model is the trickle-down theory in predicting the size of each slice of the pie as we move down the famous "chain of command"?
Or are these questions irrelevant?
Is it more relevant to instead ask: Where was I in 2003? Where am I now? What does freedom mean? How much more will I bend? What do I do now?
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We will register our protest for the immediate release of Dr. Afia Siddiqui at the Lahore Press Club at 6 PM this Saturday. We humbly request the participation of all members of the FAST-NU community in particular and the larger body of Lahori civil rights activists in general.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Auschwitz revived
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1 comments:
What is more imperative is that we have to see matters within ourselves and not to see outside Pakistan. Does this means any credibility of having a green passport and highly qualified? Having a green passport and higher qualification is exact goose for the nefarious designs of US Administration who always trying to frame us and why not other nationalities and again comes to our Administration who always guarding foreigners and not giving protection to their own nationals. Its time to ask our Politicians and Administration either uniformed or suited one, what they want from us. Should all of us who have higher qualification leave green passport and accept any other nationality or what else we do when no one cares for us even in our own country??? Shame on us also and especially on our elders who never think independently for this country. Really it’s the time to make a decision who else had to rule this country and to safeguard it’s sovereignty.
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