“Take me out of this hell”, pleads Dr Aafia Siddiqui while meeting her sister after 20 years in US prison  

• The much-awaited meeting between Dr Aafia Siddiqui and her sister Dr Fowzia Siddiqui turned out to be a bitter-sweet experience as the marks of torture endured by Dr Aafia after 2 decades surfaced.

• The Pakistani Scientist was accused of attempting to murder and assault American Personnel in Afghanistan, which led to her imprisonment in 2010, although many believe that she was held captive in Afghanistan by the US from 2003 to 2010.

Pakistani scientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui was finally allowed to meet her sister Dr Fowzia Siddiqui after languishing in a US prison for nearly two decades. The two sisters met at Carswell, a prison medical facility in Fort Worth, Texas. Fowzia was accompanied by Dr Aafia’s lawyer Clive Smith and Senator Mushtaq Ahmed, who is associated with a Pakistani political party Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). 

Before leaving for the US to meet her younger sister, Dr Fowzia wrote on her twitter, “My heart is racing, my mind in turmoil, I may actually see my little sister 1st time in 20 years. I have no words to describe my feelings. I wish I could hug her; hold her hand and bring her home.”

However, the meeting proved to be a bitter-sweet experience for Dr Fowzia as the sterile visitation room at FMC Carswell was divided by a thick glass, and she was not even allowed to share a photograph of Dr Aafia’s children with her. The two sisters couldn’t even hug or touch each other despite meeting for the first time in 20 years. 

To make matters worse for the duo, the background music for the meeting was the periodic rattle of heavy prison keys. Dr Aafia was taken to the meeting place in a tan prison uniform and white headscarf. Her upper teeth were missing, potentially lost to one of the many assaults that she went through in the past two decades. She also faced difficulty in hearing due to a beating she took around her head, stated Senator Mushtaq Ahmed.   

During the first hour of the meeting, Aafia spoke at length about the torture she had undergone in the prison. After being insisted by her lawyer to talk about the family, Dr Aafia Siddiqui said, “I miss my family every day, my mother, my father, you, my sister, and my children. I think of them all the time.”  

According to the senator Mushtaq Ahmed, Dr Aafia Siddiqui still showed extraordinary verbal skills when the conversation turned to literature and poetry. He also stated that Dr Aafia’s health was visibly weak, she was teary eyed and constantly talked about being in hell and pleaded them to take her out of prison as soon as possible. At the end of the meeting that lasted for nearly two and a half hours, she was finally taken back in chains. 

“What message does this innocent daughter, Aafia, have for the people, politicians, and rulers? What message does she have for Ali, Asia, and Humira? What kind of treatment and torture does she endure in jail?” Ahmed questioned in his statement. He also stated that the key to Dr Aafia’s release lies in Islamabad, not Washington. 

Dr Aafia Siddiqui, who was accused of attempting to murder and assault American Personnel in Afghanistan, was sentenced to 86 years of imprisonment. However, Dr Aafia always claimed innocence and appealed her conviction.

The third and final meeting between Dr Aafia Siddiqui and her sister Dr Fowzia Siddiqui will take place today. It will be interesting to know the details of the meeting as her lawyer and Pakistani senator will now focus on securing her release, as per the statement.