Sister talks about ‘distressing’ condition of Aafia Siddiqui in US prison

KARACHI: Dr Fowzia Siddiqui, who returned to Karachi on Monday after meeting her sister Aafia Siddiqui at medical detention centre in Carswell jail in Texas, has said that her incarcerated sister was in a pitiable condition and needs immediate intervention by the Pakistani government for her repatriation.

Dr Fowzia Siddiqui, who met her sister after 20 years at the Federal Medical Centre, Carswell, told the media at the Karachi airport about the traumatic experience of seeing the physical condition of her sister.

She said that the meeting was arranged through plexiglass, and they not allowed to hug or touch each other after the two decades long separation. “I wish I could hug her, hold her, bring her home,” she tweeted prior to the meeting.

Commenting on the deplorable condition Aafia Siddiqui, she quoted her British lawyer Clive Stafford Smith as saying he would have preferred Aafia to be held at the Guantanamo Bay instead of detaining her at Carswell because of its “transparent political nature”.

He said that “Carswell hides behind a pretense of fair treatment.” 

Talking to Salaam Media,  he said: “She’s missing her front teeth, she can’t really hear out of her right ear because she’s been hit in the head. She’s got palsy of the right cheek. Meaning that there’s some sort of brain damage that’s happened to her in the assaults on her”. 

Smith also said that “there have been 35 reported cases of the guards sexually assaulting the female prisoners in Carswell recently”.