‘Pakistani neuroscientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui still alive’

By Katrina Jones Jun 20th, 2012 ( 1 Comment )

Washington: Pakistani neuroscientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui, who is serving her prison sentence in US, is alive, an official said, denying the rumours of her death.

SMSs have been circulating in Pakistan that Dr Siddiqui had passed away, but Maria Douglas, a spokesperson for Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, told The Express Tribune that Dr Siddiqui is alive.

The neuroscientist was sentenced to 86 years in prison in 2010 by a New York court. The US accused her of being an al Qaeda worker and of trying to fire on a US soldier during her interrogation.

An MIT graduate, Dr Siddiqui, went missing for five years before she was discovered in Afghanistan.

The sentiment prevails in Pakistan that Dr Siddiqui is innocent, and her family also denied the US ‘allegations’.

A statement issued by the Embassy of Pakistan said that they and the Pakistani Consulate General in Texas are in regular contact with the FMC Carswell authorities regarding Dr Aafia Siddiqui.

“At our query, the prison authorities confirmed today that Dr Siddiqui was quite well. She is also in regular telephone contact with her family and, according to the authorities, last telephoned her family on 19 June 2012,” a statement issued by the Embassy of Pakistan said.

“An officer from the Pakistan Consulate General in Houston visits Dr Siddiqui at the FMC prison regularly. The last such visit took place in April 2012. Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s brother has also visited her in prison,” it added.