LONDON-Around 500 Muslim women from cities across the UK gathered outside the Pak High Commission in London on Saturday to protest at the ‘sham trial’ of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui by US government.
They also expressed their outrage at the criminal neglect of the Zardari govt over her case and its ‘complicity’ in the horrendous ordeal that she suffered.

Dr. Nazreen Nawaz, Women’s Media Representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain while addressing the gathering highlighted the appalling details of Dr. Aafia’s torture at the hands of US prison guards while being detained in Bagram, the American base in Afghanistan.

She also highlighted that following her extradition to the US in 2008 she faced a sham trial. She said Zardari government had turned its back on Dr. Aafia and betrayed not only her but hundreds of other Pakistani citizens handed over to the US in return for a flow of dollars into the country.
‘What kind of leadership would sell one of its own daughters for financial gain or surrender its own judicial process to a foreign state’, she questioned.

She said that the Muslims of Pakistan deserve better than self-driven opportunistic politicians or corrupt political systems-whether democracies or dictatorships-that have demonstrated time and again to have failed their people.

She stressed that the Muslims of Pakistan deserved a system that sincerely cared for its citizens, that refuses to be manipulated by foreign powers, and that would truly protect its people, its land, its resources and establish security in Pakistan and across the Muslim world.

She urged Zardari government to end its cooperation with the US amd make efforts for Dr. Aafia and her children’s release. Ms Shazia Akhtar and Umme Adil also addressed the protesters.
Following the protest, a letter was delivered by women of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain to the High Commissioner of Pakistan Wajid Shamsul Hasan regarding Dr. Aafia’s case.


Asif Mehmood
23rd February 2010

Source: The Nation