Aafia’s son reaches Pakistan
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
By Mariana Baabar
ISLAMABAD: The young son of detained Dr Aafia Siddiqui, Muhammad Ahmed, reached Pakistan safely from Kabulon Monday evening by a PIA commercial flight.
“The Afghan government handed over Muhammad Ahmed to a senior official of the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul and he arrived in Islamabad and was received by Director-General of the Afghan desk at the Foreign Ministry, Rafi Zaman,” the Foreign Office spokesman told The News. Ahmed has been handed over to Fauzia Suddiqqui, sister of Dr Aafia.
The spokesman said Pakistan had taken up this case at the highest level. “Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in his meeting with the family had assured them that the government would ensure the return of the youngster,” the spokesman added.
Initially the family of the detained youngster was supposed to go to Kabul but finally it was the government which facilitated the return.The spokesman said the two governments were in touch and it was Monday that the two sides met in Kabul after which Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry official Daud Panjsheri handed over Muhammad Ahmed to the Pakistani ambassador Asif Durrani.
It may be mentioned here that US officials claimed to have arrested Dr Aafia and her three children from Ghazni this July. One of them has since died while there is no information about her daughter whether or not she would be handed over to Pakistani officials.
Ahmed’s mother Aafia is on trial in the United States for allegedly assaulting US military personnel.Ahmed was handed over to the Pakistani officials on Monday, an Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed.
Interestingly, the Afghan government in its statement has been calling the youngster Ali Hassan. He has been in the Afghan government’s custody since July, when his mother, Aafia Siddiqui, was detained outside the governor’s house in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province.
Aafia, suspected of links with al-Qaeda militants, was first taken to a US military base in Afghanistan and then flown to New York, where she is facing charges of assault on US military personnel in Ghazni.During interrogation at the base she picked up a soldier’s rifle, “announced her desire to kill Americans” and fired shots at US soldiers and FBI agents, the US indictment alleges. She was wounded by return fire.
Aafia’s son is a dual American-Pakistani national, and was adopted by Siddiqui after his biological parents were killed in a massive earthquake that struck Kashmir in 2005, Sultan Ahmed Baheen, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry, said.
However, the spokesman at the Foreign Office contradicted Baheen’s statement, saying, the DNA tests done by US authorities showed that the boy was Aafia’s biological son.
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The 12-year-old son of neuroscientist and MIT graduate , Mohammad Ahmed, was handed over to his aunt  in Islamabad after years of detention in a  in Afghanistan. Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is still currently facing trial charged with attempting to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan. Siddiqui and her three children disappeared after leaving her parent's house in  on 30th March, 2003. She was married to a nephew of , the accused mastermind of the  attacks. Her husband was captured in 2003 and is now held at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center. In 2004, Dr. Aafia was identified by the FBI as an “Al-Qaeda operative and facilitator who posed a clear and present danger to America". 

Mohammad Ahmed's mother, Aafia Siddiqui.Mohammad Ahmed was only six when he and his mother, brother and sister were abducted from Karachi in 2003 and later handed over to US authorities. Dr. Fauzia told journalists after the boy had been given to her by officials of the interior ministry and intelligence agencies. She gave a written statement to the officials expressing her gratitude to the Pakistani nation, President of Pakistan Asif ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, Advisor on Interior Rehman Malik, Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah and the National Assembly and Senate for freeing the boy.

Mohammad Ahmed arrived at the  in Islamabad from Kabul in a PIA flight and was taken to his aunt’s residence.  co-chairman Iqbal Haider said that the daughter of Dr. Aafia was also in Afghanistan. He regretted that despite having U.S. nationality, the U.S. government did nothing for the release of its four citizens, stating that “this is a severe violation of the US laws and constitution.”

Muhammad Ahmed landed back to his home in Karachi from where he had disappeared five years back, with his family, Dr. Fauzia and her family hoping that the other two missing children would also be back home soon, by taking some positive steps from the Government of Pakistan.