Pak HR activist files petition for recovery of Dr Aafia from US jail

Karachi, Nov 18 : A leading Pakistani human rights activist has reportedly filed a constitutional petition seeking intervention by the Sindh High Court (SHC) to ensure the release and safe return of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, who is presently put in a US jail facing legal trial on terror charges.

Dr Aafia was allegedly nabbed by US security forces from Kabul on the charge that she made a murderous attack on some of the securitymen, and later shifted to a US jail. But, her family members claim that she had been missing for the past several years after being kidnapped, alongwith her children, from an airport in Pakistan.

Through counsel Iqbal Aqeel, Human rights activist Intikhab Alam Suri maintained that Dr Aafia and her three children were taken into illegal custody and forcibly flown to USA by unidentified officials and intelligence sleuths.

Suri did not mention the alleged date and time when the detenues or kidnapped victims were apprehended and taken out of Pakistan, but sought direction from the SHC to police authorities to register a kidnapping case against those involved in her arrest, detention and removal from Pakistani soil.

Suri also prayed the court to direct the federal interior and foreign ministries to ensure her release and safe return. The petition was accepted and is likely to be heard in a day or two.

ANI