She was once described by a Prime Minister of Pakistan as ‘daughter of the nation’ echoing the demand for her release from a US prison where Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a neuroscientist, is serving an 86-year sentence on terror charges. Islamabad has been running a long campaign in her support with strident anti-US rhetoric that has failed to move Washington.

But now a British national, who appears to be of Pakistani origin, has reinforced the belief that she did have links to terror outfits like al-Qaeda. In fact, one of the names used for the frail 49-year-old former Karachi resident is ‘Lady al-Qaeda’.

The 44-year-old British resident of Blackburn, a large industrial town in England, Malik Faisal Akram, barged into a synagogue in Texas and took four hostages while demanding that his ‘sister’ be released. Two of the hostages managed to escape and the other two were freed after US agents stormed the synagogue. Akram was shot dead.

It may be recalled that Britain’s ‘liberal’ policies do not prevent extremists and militants to ply their wares. The island kingdom also has a large population of people of Pakistani origin, many of whom wedded to extremist ideology.   

The US President and federal agencies did not think that Akram was part of a terrorist group and believe that he acted alone, but the incident has brought the focus back on Pakistan and its jihadi/terror links. Akram had flown to the US just a few days before he tried to take four hostages in the Jewish shrine. His family in the UK, while decrying the hostage taking act, claimed that Akram was mentally unsound.

It can be easily guessed that Akram was influenced by the jihadi/terror groups, mostly headed and run by people of Pakistani origin in the UK and known to fan extreme views among Muslims.  He was reportedly a member of the Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic organisation banned by Saudi Arabia and had travelled abroad for works related to the organisation. His family has political ties through to Malik Irfan, a Labor Party councilor.

‘Mental illness’ is a kind of excuse often used by family and friends of those involved in heinous crimes. A mentally ill man would not fly thousands of miles away and barge into a target selected on religious grounds with a gun in hand. Extremist Muslims have a deep antipathy towards the Jews.

The   Akram-act, while failing to help Siddiqui in any manner, only shifted focus to Pakistan and its identity as a terror-sponsoring nation. He obviously wanted in some manner to ‘avenge’ the arrest and the sentencing of the Pakistani woman but ended up reviving her history as a terror activist. For Pakistan it could not have come at a worst moment because it may further jeopardise its desperate attempts to befriend its old ally, the US, while looking for economic salvation.

Pakistan has been so keen to see her freed that it was ready to swap a CIA contractor, Raymond Davis, held on charge of killing a motorcycle borne Lahore security official who was chasing him, for Aafia Siddiqui. The US rejected the proposal. To the embarrassment of Pakistanis, the American was released in return for ‘blood money’.  

The demand for Aafia Siddiqui’s release is an on-going nation-wide movement though her case has been called a “flashpoint of Pakistani-American tensions”, and “one of the most mysterious in a secret war dense with mysteries”. Her imprisonment is used to fire a campaign how the wicked West disrespects Muslim women. This has helped draw sympathy of human rights activists but has not erased the impression of Pakistan’s jihadi/terrorist proclivities.

Her family says she was innocent and was convicted on flawed evidence. But the track record of Siddiqui, who came to the US for studies while still in her teens, does not seem to support that claim.

After the 9/11 attacks, several Pakistanis or people of Pakistani origin settled in affluent Western countries, were found to be associated with terror groups. Many were caught and sentenced; one such man was the son of an Air Vice Marshal in the Pakistani Air Force (PAF).    

Contrary to the Islamabad narrative, Dr Aafia Siddiqui showed signs of being, if not an active jihadi/terrorist, a strong supporter. It must have been her jihadi belief that saw her attempting to shoot US service men who were interrogating her at an Afghan centre.

Married to a Pakistani doctor in 1995, the couple divorced but she reportedly married another man who was related to Khalid Sheikh, the Pakistani mastermind of 9/11 attacks. She and the alleged second husband had in 2002 purchased 10000-night vision goggles, body armour and books with instructions on making crude bombs that were to be planted across many places in America.  

She must be important enough in the jihadi/terror world. It is believed that over 50 jehadis militants have died so far while attempting to get her released from prison. A White American militant once tried to attack the Texas prison where she is being held.

Her prison mates seem to believe that she is no pacifist, as the Pakistanis claim. Siddiqui was hurt when incensed women inmates threw a cup of hot coffee on her face, requiring her hospitalization.

The Pakistani lobby in the US supplements the effort of the Pakistani establishment in pleading for her freedom. Their efforts will not succeed as long as the impression of Pakistan’s close links with terror stays.

Prime Minister Imran Khan government makes half-hearted attempts to deal with designated terrorists and shuts its eyes towards their fund collection drives. And it is only too happy to defend terrorist and their sympathisers.

Láffaire Aafia Siddiqui has only strengthened the adverse notions about Pakistan where the regime has come to treat religious extremists as allies.  

—by South Asia Watcher