Afghanistan hands over son of Pakistani scientist held by US (Roundup)

Sep 15, 2008, 16:34 GMT

Islamabad - Afghan authorities on Monday handed over to Pakistan's embassy in Kabul the son of a Pakistani scientist allegedly linked to al-Qaeda, and held in US custody, officials said.

Aafia Siddiqui, 36, a US-educated neuroscientist, has been charged in a Manhattan court with assault on and attempted murder of her US investigators. She was arrested in Afghanistan's Ghazni province on July 17.

Siddiqui's 11-year-old son, Ali Hassan, also known as Muhammad Ahmad, was with his mother when she was detained while allegedly carrying designs for explosive devices and descriptions of US landmarks in her handbag.

'Afghan Foreign Ministry official Daud Panjshiri handed over Ali Hassan to Pakistan's Charge d'Affairs Muhammad Daud at around 10:30 am (0500 GMT),' Pakistan embassy spokesman Muhammad Naeem told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by phone.

'The child is in good health,' said Naeem, adding that the mission was making efforts to send Hassan to Pakistan 'at the earliest.'

Ahmad was later in the evening was handed over to his aunt, Fauzia Siddiqui, following his arrival in Islamabad.

Fauzia did not allow him to talk to the media, saying he was too terrified. 'During the custody he was given so many names that he does not know that his actual name is Muhammad Ahmad,' she said.

Siddiqui, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and mother of three, refused to appear in the federal court in New York earlier this month to protest against what she said was her humiliating treatment and traumatized condition.

US Attorney Michael J Gracia had accused Siddiqui of grabbing the rifle of a US warrant officer and firing shots on a team of FBI agents and US military personnel who arrived at a detention centre to interrogate her on July 18.

She failed to hit any of the US personnel but one of the two shots fired by the warrant officer with his service pistol hit Siddiqui in the body.

Siddiqui was indicted in absentia on five counts of attempted murder and assault and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on each count.

She went missing in March 2003 along with her three children in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi. Her family alleged that she was picked up by Pakistani intelligence agents after the FBI issued an alert because of her alleged links with al-Qaeda.

It was widely believed that the Pakistani intelligence agencies handed her over to US authorities who supposedly kept her at a detention centre close to Kabul in the following years.

Allegations also appeared in the media that she was exposed to severe torture and even rape during her days at the detention centre at Bagram airbase.

She surfaced again in Ghazni following an intensive campaign by human rights organizations for her recovery and a petition filed in a Pakistani court.

The whereabouts of her two other children, a son and a daughter, are still unknown.