She has been dubbed Lady al-Qaeda by US media, but the Pakistani family of Aafia Siddiqui, on trial in New York, insist she is a moderate Muslim more interested in flowers and animals than wielding weapons.
Their description of a loving mother, daughter and good neighbor fond of tending her rose garden clashes with US prosecutors’ description of an Islamic extremist who grabbed a gun and opened fire on US soldiers and FBI agents.
Whether she deceived her family about her extremist views, radicalized during a long unexplained disappearance, or really is the woman they say she is, is a mystery that may, perhaps, be explained on the stand in New York.
PHOTO: AFP
On the opening day of the trial on Tuesday, prosecutors described the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-educated neuroscientist as a would-be terrorist who in July 2008 grabbed a US soldier’s rifle at an Afghan police station and opened fire.
The 37-year-old has repeatedly disrupted the proceedings, complaining that the court is unfair. On Tuesday she was ordered out of the court after her outbursts.
In the upmarket Gulshan-e-Iqbal neighborhood of Karachi, her frail 70-year-old mother Ismat Siddiqui thumbs through an old family photo album and defends the girl smiling from the pages.
“She loves people, animals and flowers. She wouldn’t hurt anything alive. How can she try to kill US soldiers?” Ismat Siddiqui said. “She was a good Muslim and at the same time she was a good human. She would help people in distress and never thought of killing an insect. How can she be accused as a terrorist and a member of al-Qaeda?”
Siddiqui’s elder sister, Fowzia, a doctor, recalled her sibling’s childhood love of animals and academic excellence.
“She was brilliant in all respects. She was an excellent student and a brave mother,” Fowzia said.
A neighbor, 55-year-old trader Mohammad Hashim, described Siddiqui as “a nice girl, a decent and caring girl.”
However, a different picture emerged in the courtroom. US prosecutors said Siddiqui was arrested by Afghan police on July 17, 2008 with notes on her referring to a “mass casualty attack” and target lists including New York’s most famous landmarks.
The next day, while being held at a local police station, she allegedly grabbed the M4 assault rifle of one of several US servicemen and FBI agents who had come to interrogate her. She opened fire, missed, and was shot by one of the US soldiers, prosecutors allege.
Her lawyers will argue that there is little direct physical evidence that she shot at the Americans.
Siddiqui was living in Karachi with her family when she vanished along with her three children in March 2003. A year later, she featured on a 2004 US list of people suspected of al-Qaeda links.
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