Islamabad : Pakistan Professionals Forum (PPF) and the civil society based in the federal capital staged a protest rally here Wednesday at Aabpara Chowk to condemn and reject, in unequivocal terms, the illegal detention and conviction of Dr Aafia Siddiqui by the NY court.

The protestors including doctors, engineers, lawyers, academicians, students, and other professionals, while carrying placards and banners, chanted slogans and demanded international human rights organisations to play their due role in the release of Aafia Siddiqui.

The rally was addressed by Dr Fauzia Siddiqui, the sister of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, President PPF Asif Luqman Qazi, Chairperson Defence of Human Rights Amina Janjua, and other civil society activists and student leaders.

Dr Fauzia said her sister is being punished for being a Muslim and a Pakistani. “According to a Fatwa given by leading Muslim scholars, it is the duty of every Muslim to struggle for her release,” she said and added that the horrifying case of Aafia Siddiqui and her three children is a glaring example of the criminal and inhuman practices of US imperialism and its ally, the Pakistani government.

The speakers observed that the Government of Pakistan has not made sincere efforts to get Dr Aafia released from the illegal imprisonment of the US during the last two years. “We demand the Government of Pakistan to immediately withdraw its cooperation with the US in the so-called war on terror and ban all transit supplies of US and NATO armed forces to Afghanistan from Pakistan,” they said.

Asif Luqman urged leading political parties of Pakistan and their leaders, particularly President Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, to put their act together and make sincere efforts beyond making press statements for the immediate repatriation of Dr Aafia to her family in Karachi, otherwise the nation would not forgive them.

The speakers said Dr Aafia Siddiqui is a citizen of Pakistan, was illegally abducted by Pakistani intelligence agencies and handed over to the US authorities. “Only the courts in Pakistan have the legal authority and jurisdiction to hear her trial and decide her fate if she has ever committed a crime,” they said. They maintained that handing her over to the US authorities is a gross violation of the constitution of Pakistan and an insult to the Pakistani judicial system and the nation as a whole.

The kangaroo court of New York has held Dr Aafia Siddiqui guilty for a crime that she never committed despite the fact that neither any fingerprints of Dr Aafia were found on the gun nor the witnesses could testify their statements.

The abduction, illegal imprisonment, torture and rape of Dr Aafia by US forces is an insult to the national integrity, dignity and sovereignty of 170 million Pakistani people.

SOURCE : Thenews.com.pk

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