Aafia Siddiqui requests PM Khan’s help for release

Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscience who was sentenced to 86 years in prison by a New York court in 2010, has sought Prime Minister Imran Khan’s help to get out of prison.

“I want to get out of prison, my imprisonment in the US is illegal as I was kidnapped and taken to the US,” she said in a message sent through Pakistan’s Consul General.

Aafia asked the Consul General to convey her message to Imran Khan when she paid her a visit on October 9, 2018.

“Imran Khan had supported me in the past also,” Siddiqui said in a message. “I have always considered him one of my biggest heroes and wish to see him as the Khalifa of all Muslims.”

She also urged her hero to “be careful of the munafiq (hypocrites) around him”.

On Sept 23, 2010, a New York court sentenced Dr Siddiqui to 86 years in prison.

Dr Siddiqui’s supporters claimed that she was arrested in Pakistan and transferred to US custody. Both the US and Pakistani officials, however, said that she was arrested in Afghanistan.

Dr Siddiqui, an MIT graduate, allegedly went missing for five years before she was discovered in Afghanistan. It is believed that she snatched a gun during an interrogation in Afghanistan and tried to shoot a US soldier.

She was also accused of working for Al Qaeda.