Saturday, September 25, 2010

Pakistanis Protest Siddiqui's Sentence

KARACHI: Supporters of political parties, religious organisations and social groups held meetings and poured into the streets across the country on Friday shouting anti-US slogans after a New York court jailed Dr Aafia Siddiqui for 86 years.

In Karachi, police fired tear gas shells to prevent scores of people from marching on the US consulate at the behest of the youth wing of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI).

Hundreds of police personnel were deployed on Sharea Faisal to stop protesters from marching towards the US mission. At least 14 people were detained for creating a disturbance.

Protesters took to the streets in Lahore. Led by Tehrik-i-Insaaf chief Imran Khan, they condemned the verdict as “unethical and inhuman”.

In Islamabad, police stopped dozens of Madressah students from marching on the US embassy to hand over a protest note.

Similar demonstrations and meetings were held in Quetta, Hyderabad, Peshawar, Multan and other towns and cities under the auspices of PML, Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan, Sunni Tehrik, All Pakistan Women’s Association, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Ideological) and Pasban.

From here.
 
Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a US citizen, MIT graduate and neuroscientist, was convicted in a US court for shooting at her US interrogators in Afghanistan.   Siddiqui moved back to Pakistan in 2002. She disappeared with her three young children in March 2003, shortly after the arrest of her second husband's uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged chief planner of the September 11 attacks. On September 23, 2010, she was sentenced to 86 years in prison.

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