TEXAS, US (HRNW) Incarcerated Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui had a second meeting in 20 years with her sister Fowzia at a prison hospital in Fort Worth, Texas the other day.
The meeting between both the sisters lasted for 44 minutes. Senator Talha Mahmood and Aafia Siddiqui’s lawyer were also present during the meeting.
Later, Fowzia sobbed out the ordeal she and her sister had been facing. She said she found her sister very frail and “we wept for half an hour”.
Meanwhile, it is alleged that the incarcerated Dr Aafia faced sexual assault in the prison.
Dr Fowzia was scheduled to meet her sister on Dec 2 and 3 but she was denied permission as the authorities claimed to have ‘lost’ key of the prison. In a video, Dr Fowzia said she reached the jail but could not meet Aafia as the staff ‘misplaced’ the prison key.
It is to be noted that Fowzia had met her sister in May, earlier this year, for the first time after 20 years of imprisonment in US. In 2003, Siddiqui was wanted by the FBI for questioning for possible ties to Al Qaeda and was detained by Pakistani authorities, according to US media reports at the time.
US officials alleged that when police captured Siddiqui in July 2008, she was carrying two pounds (900 grams) of sodium cyanide, which releases a highly toxic gas, notes and a list of US installations.