|
Writers Articles And Opinions |
|
|
|
04 April 2010 By Kamran Shahid
Ismat Siddiqui is
Aafia Siddiqui's mother.
Dr. Fowzia is Aafia
Siddiqui's sister.
Yvonne Ridley is the
sister who was captured by the Islamic Emirate of
Afghanistan Mujahideen, but was soon release, after
her release Allaah (SWT) opened her heart for His
religion Islam.
Kamran Shahid Interviews Aafia Siddiqui’s Family
Translated and
transcribed by the Justice for Aafia Coalition
Kamran Shahid:
We are sitting in Aafia Siddiqui‟s home in Karachi, a
woman who was tried in the United States, and who has
become such a big phenomenon in Pakistan. We will talk
to her immediate family members: her mother and
sister. We will also talk to the female journalist who
became a Muslim after spending time in a Taliban
prison. It was her press conference which broke the
news of Prisoner 650, which forced the Americans to
present Aafia in a court. Today‟s programme has
several special features. First and foremost we will
talk about Aafia; secondly, we will show you unseen
pictures, and then we will also show you exclusive
footage, which has never been aired before on any
Pakistani Channel, of the torture cell in Afghanistan
where Aafia Siddiqui was shot.
A very warm welcome,
and thank you very much for inviting us here. Let me
start our discussion with talking to Aafia‟s mother
first. (Pakistan Interior Minister) Rehman Malik came
here a couple of days ago and we hear that he gave you
much hope that he will be able to do something for
Aafia Siddiqui. Do you trust his promises?
Ismat Siddiqui:
I think that since the time Aafia was taken away,
Rehman Malik has been the only one who raised our
hopes and did something. He also had the biggest role
in trying to bring the children back. He spoke very
strongly about the children to (Afghan President)
Karzai and he was hopeful that we will soon succeed,
if Allah so wills.
Kamran Shahid:
Two of her children are still in Afghanistan?
Ismat: We don‟t
know…
Kamran Shahid:
But why will Rehman Malik talk to Karzai then?
Ismat: Well, it
is Rehman Malik who is doing everything. Anyway, he
had many hopes. He said we will get the two children
released. He was more hopeful about the girl.
Kamran Shahid:
Dr. Fowzia, the American court has convicted her and
announced the maximum penalty it can give in her case.
Now, the Pakistani ambassador to the US and Rehman
Malik too has met you. Despite all this, do you think
that considering the verdict of an American court,
will Pakistan still be able to use its influence to
win Dr. Aafia‟s release? Is a breakthrough possible?
Dr. Fowzia:
This was a mistrial, a false trial. America had no
jurisdiction. If you see, all violations of basic
human rights since the birth of mankind which one can
imagine, all of them have been inflicted upon Aafia
alone. Apparently, it looks like Aafia has been
convicted and all that, but [not clear]. There was a
time when we (the family) were all alone. Wherever we
used to go, no one used to listen to us. But now she
is the daughter of this great nation, which has done
many (great) things in history, and has cared for a
lot of things. And I have faith in the people of
Pakistan and in Allah. And I think, if the media
becomes the bridge to convey the message, then you
know, Aafia‟s son Ahmed was recovered. He is a miracle
in front of us. And it happened when the people stood
up for the cause. The media helped portray that cause,
and the government had to act. As Yvonne Ridley
usually says, "When the people lead, the government
has to follow."
Kamran Shahid:
As you say, there is a lot of pressure from the nation
and the nation wants Aafia to be released immediately,
I think if it was within the Pakistani government‟s
power, she would have been free. On the other hand, we
see that in the custody of American government, her
trial is conducted in America and they have their own
norms. Then would they, since she is accused, who the
Americans think is accused of terrorism, do you think…
Ismat: They do
not think she is a terrorist…?
Kamran Shahid:
Do you think they will release her on the Pakistani
government‟s demand?
Dr. Fowzia:
Actually, she was not tried for terrorism. The
American prosecution, their District Attorney
announced before the trial began that, in his own
words, that Aafia has no link to Taliban, Al-Qaida or
any terrorist organization. We do not have any
evidence for that. Her trial that is going on is only
for those few moments in which Aafia snatched the gun,
picked it up, loaded it, fired it and then the bullets
somehow got into her stomach! These were the
charges. She was convicted of them, in which there is
no question and trace of terrorism. It is a
misconception. It is the American media which has made
her out to be a terrorist.
Kamran Shahid:
There is a perception that she is an American citizen
and hence the US has a right to try her. What do say
about this perception?
Dr. Fowzia: I
told you, the Americans had no jurisdiction. This was
a mistrial. Aafia is a Pakistani citizen. She always
was a Pakistani citizen. She never even had a Green
Card.
Kamran Shahid:
So she is a Pakistani citizen?
Dr. Fowzia: Of
course. We have all the passports. Please see them
all.
Ismat: The
passports are all here.
Dr. Fowzia:
Yes, they are all here. If she had an intention of
leaving her home and the country, the first thing she
would have done is to take her and the children‟s
passports with her.
Kamran Shahid:
So you are saying these are all Pakistani passports?
Dr. Fowzia: Of
course. Please see them, even her children‟s. When the
children were born, she…
Kamran Shahid:
This is her daughter, Maryam, whom Mr. Rehman Malik
has promised to get back from President Karzai. This
is a Pakistani passport.
Dr. Fowzia:
This is Ahmed.
Kamran Shahid:
This is her son, Ahmed, whom we will try to let you
meet in today‟s program. His passport too is
Pakistani.
Dr. Fowzia:
Look, this is Aafia‟s passport. Look, 3rd February
2008. It expired on that date, the date they decided
the case against her!
Kamran Shahid:
This is Aafia Siddiqui‟s passport, which her sister
Dr. Fowzia has given to me.
Dr. Fowzia: The
picture you are seeing on the passport, actually it
was actually this photo that she had for the passport,
but the officials took that one upfront for the
passport. This picture you are seeing was taken on the
same date the passport was made.
Ismat: Show him
that passport too.
Dr. Fowzia:
Look at this passport. This was when she was very
young.
Kamran Shahid:
Since then she has had a Pakistani passport. You can
see this.
Dr. Fowzia: It
also has her national identity card on it. Perhaps she
only took her national identity with her, since we do
not have the original. This is a photocopy.
Kamran Shahid:
The date on it is 29th of July, 1994. This means she
does not have a dual nationality?
Dr. Fowzia: No,
no, no, not at all. She does not even have a green
card. She never even applied for it.
Ismat: It is a
mistrial.
Kamran Shahid:
She studied in MIT for a long time. Because of this
some people think she is an American citizen?
Dr. Fowzia:
Maybe, but I don‟t think so. I think just to justify
in the public that the rendition they did, it was an
illegal rendition. Even if you look at their
story…leave alone what happened in 2003. Just take
their story. They say that from Afghanistan they took
her to the US. How can you take a Pakistani citizen
from Afghanistan to US? She should have been taken to
Pakistan. Isn‟t there a Pakistani embassy in
Afghanistan?
Kamran Shahid:
Do you think it is still a mystery how she got into
Afghanistan? I mean whether the Pakistani government
delivered her to Afghanistan or she went herself?
Dr. Fowzia: To
Afghanistan, she was taken by the American FBI.
Ismat: The FBI
took her. It is proven.
Dr. Fowzia: The
FBI‟s spokesman, on MSNBC‟s Tom Brokaw show, he is on
tape.
Ismat: It is
all on tape.
Dr. Fowzia: It
is on tape that he said: "We have Aafia."
Kamran Shahid:
Let me move onto this lady, Yvonne Ridley. A very warm
welcome to our special edition of this show.
Yvonne Ridley:
Thank you.
Kamran Shahid:
Obviously we know that you converted to Islam and the
incident was quite dramatic because you had been taken
hostage and detained by the Taliban. You were
reporting for the Sunday Express and were working as a
reporter there, in Afghanistan and then the Taliban
got hold of you and imprisoned you and (was it) the
way they treated you probably or was something else
going on in your mind during those days... we want to
know... because you are the person whose press
conference triggered the release of Aafia Siddiqui if
I am not wrong.
Yvonne Ridley:
Well, six days into my arrest - and I was arrested
because I had committed a crime - unlike everybody
else - and Aafia, and unlike any of them that were
rendered by America, I had committed a crime; I had
entered Afghanistan illegally, without a passport, so
I am the guilty one and look at me sitting here! I was
arrested and held for ten days - ten terrifying days -
and on the sixth day they invited me to embrace Islam.
Kamran Shahid:
Who?
Yvonne Ridley:
The Taliban. And it was the one little ray of hope
that I was given because I seized on this and I said I
can't embrace Islam under these circumstances and in
prison, but I said, if you release me, I promise I
will read the Qur'an and study Islam when I get back
to London. And against all the odds, after the war had
started, after they were holding on to other
Westerners, they released me - against all the odds.
On a humanitarian instruction by Mullah Omar, the
Taliban spiritual leader, I was released.
Kamran Shahid:
When was this?
Yvonne Ridley:
It was October the 8th, 2001.
Kamran Shahid:
Now we have heard quite brutal stories about
Afghanistan and the Taliban, but you have a very
different picture of the Taliban. First of all,
naturally, people would be very curious to know how
they dealt with you during all those days that you
spent there. Briefly do you want to give us a picture
of how they actually dealt with you?
Yvonne Ridley:
I was terrified because I had been told because...
George Bush told us, Tony Blair told us... this is the
most evil, brutal regime in the world, they [unclear],
and so when I was arrested, naturally, when I was
arrested, I did not think I would see the sun set at
night, and in those ten days, they dealt with me with
respect and courtesy. I went on hunger strike, and
they would still, what they would do, they would bring
out food in front of me; freshly baked bread that
smelled delicious - and I wouldn't eat it. They had a
jug of water and a bowl and they would wash my hands
and say please eat, and I was thinking I don't
understand this, you know, when are they going to be
brutal and evil? Everything that happened in Abu
Ghraib, in Bagram, in Guantanamo, and other dark
prisons, I thought would have happened to me, which
often prompts me to say thank Allah that I was
captured by the most evil, brutal regime in the world
and not by the Americans.
Kamran Shahid:
Have you ever met Mullah Omar?
Yvonne Ridley:
I haven't, no. Not as far as I am aware. Nobody knows
what he looks like!
Kamran Shahid:
Do you ever have, afterwards, recollections of
Taliban, recently or previously?
Yvonne Ridley:
I was making a film about Aafia's story, and I drove
down to Ghazni to the prison, to the police station
where she was originally held when she was arrested in
July 2008, and on my way down to Ghazni I got caught
in the fire fight between the Taliban and the Afghan
police and we had to get out of the car and run
because they were shooting.
Kamran Shahid:
We will take a break and then we will talk to the
people present here about the torture faced by Dr.
Aafia Siddiqui. We will talk to her mother. We will
ask Miss Ridley about the story she broke about
Prisoner 650, how she got to know she is in a torture
cell in Bagram. And we will also let you meet her son,
Ahmed. All this after the break.
Kamran Shahid:
Please tell us, as Miss Ridley said that America‟s
torture has been very bad.
Ismat: Yes,
very.
Kamran Shahid:
We have been told that Aafia Siddiqui had to undergo
the worst torture. What information do you have about
what injustice America has done to your daughter?
Ismat: She was
tortured a lot in the torture cell. The worst was that
six men would come and strip her naked. All her
clothes would be removed. She told this to the
Pakistani senators too, that they would strip her
naked, then tie her hands behind her back, and then
they would take her, dragging her by the hair. You
cannot imagine the cruelty they have done to her. They
would take her like this to the corridor and film her
there. After that, they observed that she would read
the Qu‟ran, from memory and from the book. They again
would send six, seven men, who would strip her naked
and misbehave etc. They took the Qu‟ran and threw it
at her feet and told her that only if you walk on the
Qu‟ran will we return the Qu‟ran to you. She would cry
and shout that she would not do it. Then they would
beat her with their rifle butts so much that she would
be bloodied. All her face and body would be injured.
Then they used to pull out her hair one by one, just
like this. Anyway, they used to tell her to walk on
the Qu‟ran…They threatened her that they will take her
to the court like this, naked.
Dr. Fowzia:
It‟s on video. It‟s on tape.
Ismat: It is
all on tape. I am not making this up.
Kamran Shahid:
On tape by Aafia Siddiqui or the Americans?
Dr. Fowzia:
They are sadists or whatever. All the strip searching
was video-taped (by them).
Kamran Shahid:
Hmm…
Ismat:
Video-taped. She said this herself too - that they
beat her so much that she bled. After that they made
her lie on a bed. Then they tied her hands and feet -
hands and feet both tied so that she is not even able
to scratch her wounds. Then they applied torture to
the soles of her feet and head. They put her in some
machines to make her lose her mental stability. They
gave her such injections on the pretext of medical
treatment. When she would plead and scream to them not
to give her these injections, they would make her
unconscious and then give them to her. Such is the
cruelty. This epic cruelty - and look at this Islamic
world, these 57 or 54 Muslim countries. They are all
silent and making their palaces in Hell. I say it
clearly, I have the fatwa, that any Muslim woman, of
any age, young or old, if she is the captive of any
non-Muslim, then it is the individual duty (fardhain)
of every Muslim, young or old, male or female, to free
her. The Islamic scholars said that even if the Holy
Ka‟bah is being demolished by people and you are
running to save it, but then you hear that a Muslim
woman has been imprisoned by the non-Muslims, then
leave the Ka‟bah, let it be demolished, but free that
Muslim woman. Do you know how big this duty on these
Muslims is? And this is the reason… Allah knows that
these people torture a Muslim woman. These low lives,
these dogs. I think dogs are much better. Even animals
don‟t do such torture.
Kamran Shahid:
Like the torture the Americans have done.
Ismat: Yes.
Imagine the torture that they lay her on a bed and tie
her up. And then six men…you know how big an issue
hijab is to us Muslims, and then you make her naked!
Which religion and which world has allowed you to do
this to the accused? They did this when they had not
even convicted her with anything! She was not even a
criminal in their law. And she has done no crime. They
did not accuse her of terrorism. She is not a
terrorist.
Kamran Shahid:
Dr. Fowzia, please tell us, because obviously these
things are very painful, but people have this
question; was it the Pakistani government who took her
to Afghanistan at the American‟s insistence? What
happened? Why did it happen to her? I mean is she the
only one to whom this was done, the torture and trial
in America?
Dr. Fowzia:
Actually, she is not the only one. Thousands! Not
hundreds, but thousands.
Kamran Shahid:
From Pakistan?
Dr. Fowzia:
From Pakistan, from Yemen and from other Muslim
countries. Aafia has just become a poster child for
this torture and rendition, perhaps because of her
education or because her family did not give up. Here
and there, we continued this campaign. You know it
matters.
Kamran Shahid:
So, you think there are many other Pakistani women?
Dr. Fowzia:
Yes, of course.
Kamran Shahid:
In Afghanistan, in American torture cells?
Dr. Fowzia:
Yes, of course. In many places, we don‟t know what
they are going through. Just because of all this we
did….she was supposed to be shot dead.
Kamran Shahid:
Because she (Yvonne Ridley) is responsible, we must
praise her (it is) because of her press conference
actually (that) this case has been put for....
Dr. Fowzia: Got
the momentum that it took…
Kamran Shahid:
So, my question to you is, how did you get to know
about this prisoner number 650, known as Aafia
Siddiqui, was prisoner number 650
Yvonne Ridley:
Well, I am a patron of Cageprisoners, a human rights
organisation which focuses mainly on Guantanamo
detainees, and I've filmed in Guantanamo for four
days, and when I came back I met up with Moazzam Begg
who was kidnapped from Pakistan and put on a rendition
flight and landed in Kandahar, Bagram and then
Guantanamo and I told him the terrible things that we
had seen in Guantanamo and he said forget Guantanamo,
there is a place that is even more dark, more deadly,
more sinister, and that is Bagram, and he said, I saw
two men being beaten to death in Bagram - being
tortured to death; and he said, even now I wake up to
hear a woman screaming, he said, every night a woman
was screaming while I was held in Bagram, and I
doubted him, I'd heard this before - he'd written
about it in Enemy Combatant , and I said, look, don't
you think the woman's screaming was a tape-recording -
some mental torture to make you think your wife was
next door? He said, well, when I got to Guantanamo,
the other detainees said that they had also heard the
woman screaming - and some of them had seen her. I
then investigated more and discovered that the
identity of this woman was Prisoner 650.
Kamran Shahid:
That she was Aafia Siddiqui?
Yvonne Ridley:
Well, I investigated and looked and checked, and in
the end, we had to come to the conclusion that, yes,
650 is Aafia Siddiqui. I couldn't believe that the
American administration would have sanctioned the
kidnap, torture and rendition of Aafia Siddiqui - and
let's not forget, when we talk about Aafia Siddiqui,
we talk about Aafia Siddiqui plus three - her
children. And then, in the midst of all of this, Aafia
Siddiqui appears in a story which could only have come
from a Hollywood plot, you know, this is the iconic
picture, this is how she...
Kamran Shahid:
Who obtained this picture?
Yvonne Ridley:
That picture (on the right) was shown to me by the
governor of Ghazni with a series of pictures of her
taken, and what shocked me, I thought, and a lot of
people around the world saw this picture and thought
this is what she looked like after she had been
shot, but actually, that is what she looked like
before she was shot in a police cell in Ghazni
police station and we've got some images to show you
which show all the gunfire that the Americans fired
off; there were 12 - more than 12 American soldiers
crammed in this cell and behind the dividing curtain
was Aafia, and she heard all this commotion and got up
to see what was going on - I don't even think she got
near the curtain, the soldiers saw somebody moving and
panicked and shot her . Now, what the Americans want
us to believe, again, how stupid do they think the
Pakistan media are, they want us to believe that she
sprang from behind the curtain, seized the
semi-automatic rifle, and fired it. In a room crowded
with soldiers, this 'highly-trained, al-Qaeda fanatic'
managed to fire off a gun and miss. If she'd swung a
cat she'd have hit four soldiers immediately - the
room was jammed with them, and we have the head of the
counter-terrorism unit, a man called Abdul-Qadeer,
telling me she never touched the gun.
Kamran Shahid:
These images of the torture cell, which Yvonne Ridley
talked about, we will try to show them to you,
exclusively on this program. After this break…
Kamran Shahid:
We will show you exclusive footage, for the first time
on any channel or program in Pakistan, of the torture
cell where Aafia Siddiqui was kept, where she was
shot, allegedly, by US soldiers. See this footage. We
will continue the program after that.
Kamran Shahid’s
voice in background: In this exclusive video
footage, our guest today in Frontline program Yvonne
Ridley, took us to this place, the dramatic place
where, according to America, Aafia Siddiqui picked up
a gun against American soldiers and fired at them. On
the other hand, Aafia Siddiqui‟s version is that this
is the place where American soldiers fired at her.
When local people were asked whether Aafia was behind
this curtain, they replied, "Yes." You can see here
marks of the bullets allegedly fired by Americans on
Aafia. When I sought details from the local (Afghan)
governor, he told me that when he went to the room, he
saw that an American had laid down his gun on the
floor and himself sat down. We Afghans too sat down at
the place. That American placed his gun on the ground.
Aafia picked up the gun and fired it. There was
another ISAF soldier in the room, who shot Aafia as a
reaction. We asked the local people whether they could
identify which marks on the wall were of the bullets
fired by Aafia. A local man said, "I was standing at
the door when the two rounds were fired, which hit the
wall as we can see. But, although she placed her hand
on the gun, but I don‟t think she did the firing." Ms.
Ridley asked him whether all these bullet marks were
from the Americans‟ guns. He replied, "Yes." The
governor was again asked what her condition was when
he saw her at the time she fired at the Americans: was
she drugged? He replied, "That she was alright, I saw
her. She was not looking abnormal." The governor was
again asked whether she looked like the picture on the
book at that time, and he replied yes. Ridley pressed
that she did not look normal in the picture. The
governor said, "I don‟t know why it appears like that.
Maybe she had lost weight, maybe because she had not
slept in a week. But, I do not know the exact reason."
Ridley insisted once again that she was not looking
normal in the picture, but the governor repeated, "I
don‟t know." Ridley asked, "It is very astonishing
that the crime was committed, allegedly, by Aafia in
Afghanistan, but the trial is being held in New York!"
The governor replied, "A crime is crime, the justice
is justice." Ridley insisted, "The crime took place in
Afghanistan while Aafia is a Pakistani national, so
why is the trial going on in New York?" The governor
replied, "I don‟t know. I don‟t care for these things.
People will have to go to a court and they should go
to a court."
Kamran Shahid:
What treatment did Aafia Siddiqui receive from the
American people and the court?
Dr. Fowzia: The
treatment, let‟s see. Our brother too went to the
court. We requested the court repeatedly to at least
let the family talk to her before the trial, let the
lawyers talk to her. Permission was not granted, not
at all. Our brother was not allowed to meet her at all
since the time she came to MDC (Brooklyn Metropolitan
Detention Centre). After that, when my brother came to
court, she tried to turn back to look. There two US
marshals standing on both sides of her, here and here,
both men. When she tried to look back, the marshals
physically spun her head to the front, manhandling her
badly. He attended the whole trial, from the first day
when Aafia came. He saw her on the first day of trial
in handcuffs and fetters, pus seeping from her wounds,
marshals and all that. My brother called me and said,
"Sister, today I have seen the oppressed and
oppressor, extreme cruelty and the extremely oppressed
under one roof!" But all these tortures are one thing.
I, as the elder sister, and knowing Aafia, what she
was and what she is: her life, her soul, everything
was those kids. Taking those children away from her, I
think there can be nothing greater than this…she dies
the day they took away her children from her. Whatever
else they are doing, they are doing it to a living
corpse. I think the second time she died was when they
stripped her and took off her clothes. But the day
they took those small children away from her, I think
there cannot be a bigger human coercion than this, and
add to it that they tortured the kids in front of her.
Kamran Shahid:
Did they torture the children?
Dr. Fowzia:
Yes, it was said in court.
Ismat: Don‟t
talk about … [unclear]. Be quiet.
Dr. Fowzia: I
don‟t think there can be a greater brutality than
that. Read the entire history of the world. I think
even Genghis Khan did not do this.
Kamran Shahid:
OK, tell us where was the (Pakistani) government
negligent, or what negligence they could have avoided
so that the case would not have gone this far?
Ismat: If the
government wanted, she would not have gone there, she
would have been here in two days. What are you talking
about? The government is doing this to its own
nationals. If the government wanted, she would not
have gone there. Let‟s believe for a moment the story
that they caught her in Afghanistan. But, you have a
consulate in Afghanistan.
Ismat: …they
should have said to Afghanistan that she is our
national, give her to us, that is our order! Why are
they doing our trial there (in the US) when we have an
ambassador present there?
Kamran Shahid:
What do you think, has this government has been has or
hasn‟t done enough or should do more; you‟re still
optimistic that this government can persuade America
and the jury that convicted her as a criminal; is it
possible for Pakistan to convince America and on what
grounds?
Dr. Fowzia:
Look... Pakistan...
Kamran Shahid:
And Obama has his own future at stake. The huge public
there, regardless of what Pakistan thinks, the media
tilt there is that they do not look at Aafia in a
positive light.
Dr. Fowzia: Yes
of course; they portray her as a terrorist despite…
Kamran Shahid:
If America did release her upon Obama‟s order, then it
would cost him the next election and this would mean
that he has released a terrorist... so how do you
expect Obama to do this?
Dr. Fowzia/Ismat:
She is not a terrorist.
Kamran Shahid:
No, I am not saying that she is; you said that the
people there think like that. So how is it that that
America and Obama will take such a huge stake and bear
the blame that they have released a terrorist for
Pakistan‟s sake.
Dr. Fowzia: The
thing is that Aafia is not a big thing in the US, only
in New York where the trial has happened and there too
only in tabloid papers has this case been reported
much, but otherwise in the rest of the US nobody
knows. She‟s not a big thing… even for Obama. Pakistan
is the backbone of America. If Pakistan stops
cooperation, even if they threaten not to cooperate,
the Americans would kneel down and hand her back. The
American State Department have said that they want to
save face.
Kamran Shahid:
The State Department has said this?
Ismat: They say
they want to give her back.
Dr. Fowzia:
She‟s not a big fish, they know. Both governments know
she‟s nobody, she‟s very innocent and she hasn‟t done
anything. This is just a face saver.
Kamran Shahid:
So if it is a face saver, what is the strategy, Rehman
Malik meets you, and Pakistani ambassador to the US
meets you...
Dr. Fowzia:
Look, they haven‟t even made an official demand. Lord
Nazir Ahmed (British Lord) told us that that no
official demand has been made, just many dinner
talks…many dinner talks.
Kamran Shahid:
So why are you expecting to have her back when they,
the government of Pakistan are not even demanding her
back?
Dr. Fowzia: If
Allah wills, they will eventually. I have told you, I
have faith in Allah and I have faith in the Pakistani
people.
Kamran Shahid:
What did Rehman Malik say to you in his last meeting,
apart from about the children, with regards to Aafia?
Dr. Fowzia: He
told us some strategies etc.
Kamran Shahid:
What did he say?
Dr. Fowzia: He
told us a strategy, which he said that you know
obviously these kinds of strategies are not to be made
public.
Kamran Shahid:
But you tell me, are you optimistic that you can get
her back here?
Dr. Fowzia: Of
course, I say even now that if you stop the NATO
supply line for 2 days, on the third day you will get
not just Aafia but even the drone attacks will stop.
Kamran Shahid:
This strategy was not told to you by Rehmanan Malik,
was it?
Dr. Fowzia: No,
I am saying this.
Ismat: We have
been saying this for many days now…
Dr. Fowzia: I
am saying this on your programme and I‟m telling the
nation that let General Kiyani act like General
Muhammad Bin Qasim and show everyone that for a
daughter, just like he does for the protection of his
whole nation, that he can also take a stand for a
daughter.
Kamran Shahid:
You should go to President Zardari as he is the
elected president, not Kiyani. Why is it you have hope
in him and not Zardari and the Prime Minister?
Dr. Fowzia:
Have you not read the papers; Pakistan‟s strongest
man, is Kiyani. I am going by what I‟ve been told.
Kamran Shahid:
By?
Dr. Fowzia: By
the media.
Kamran Shahid:
Yes, but that‟s been written by the western media
about Mr. Kiyani.
Dr. Fowzia:
Yes, but they think that of him. So whoever they think
highly of, let them listen to him.
Ismat: Had at
least Mr. Kiyani re-enacted the role of Mohammad bin
Qasim….
Kamran Shahid:
Why can‟t Zardari sahib take the role of Mohammad bin
Qasim? He is (constitutionally) the Commander in Chief
of General Kiyani.
Ismat: What can
I say…
Dr. Fowzia: Who
knows, Allah might give him guidance and he does this
job. I always used to say a couplet. I had lost all
hope when the first time they told us Aafia is coming
back but she didn‟t. Someone sent an SMS (text
message) to me, and I don‟t know if I will say it
right but the text message is:
Do not pin your
hopes on kings and the worldly, rich people
This is indeed a
great feat, which will be accomplished by the poor
Kamran Shahid:
Fantastic. My last thing to you (Yvonne Ridley) is
that these are the immediate family members of Aafia
Siddiqui and I can understand their sentiments but
with you being a journalist and not being a direct
relation to Aafia Siddiqui, tell me pragmatically
speaking while living in West is it possible if jury
in US convicts a person, what sort of pressure would
be on American president and would it be possible for
him to oblige Pakistan in any way by release them?
Yvonne Ridley:
What we are talking about is the most powerful man in
the world: Barack Obama. If he wants to change the
rules, if he wants to change the laws he will do it.
George Bush threw out the Geneva conventions and
created Guantanamo and bought us a new language:
renditioning, water boarding, renditions and kidnap.
Now, Barack Obama has the authority to throw it all
out the window and say send this woman home.
Interview with
Aafia’s son: Ahmed
Kamran Shahid:
What is your name?
Ahmed: My name
is Ahmed.
Kamran Shahid:
Aafia Siddiqui is your mother. Would you like to say
something to her? How much you miss her?
Ahmed: I want
to say why have they imprisoned her and why did they
imprison me?
Kamran Shahid:
Do you want to give her any message, to your mother as
a son?
Ahmed: I love
you and I am waiting for you and you come back soon,
if Allah permits.
EsinIslam.Com
|
Save
Add Comments To This Story