KARACHI, April 19: The all-party conference organised by the Jamaat-i-Islami has called upon the government to take concrete measures for the recovery and repatriation of Dr Aafia Siddiqui from US imprisonment.

The demand was made in a resolution adopted at the meeting held here on Saturday at Idara Noor-i-Haq on the topic of ‘Victim of brutality Dr Aafia Siddiqui and the US traders of human rights’.

The deputy chief of JI, Professor Ghafoor Ahmad, who presided over the meeting, said that the US claimed that it was the biggest champion of human rights. However, its deeds were contrary to its claims as it was the same US which committed gross abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison and the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

He said the US was the biggest enemy of human rights and rights violations at Guantanamo Bay were proof of it.

“At these camps innocent people from backward countries, Muslims in particular, were being treated inhumanly”, he said.

He demanded of the government to make serious efforts for the release of Dr Aafia.

Dr Aafia’s sister Dr Fauzia Siddiqui said that her sister was an innocent and educated Muslim woman. She said that the US had kept her in prison for over six years, but failed to prove her guilty of any crime.

Yusuf Mastikhan of the National Workers Party said that the US war was not against terrorism, but for “resources”. He said that the situation in the country was deteriorating day by day.

Salim Zia of the Pakistan Muslim League-N said the treatment meted out to Dr Aafia by the US authorities deserved strongest condemnation as it was a clear example of brutality.
Source: Dawn
Date:4/20/2009