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Dr Aafia Siddiquis husband breaks his silence after six years

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

KARACHI: After six years of silence, Dr Muhammad Amjad Khan, ex-husband of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, has finallyspoken up and says that most of the press reports that relate to his former wife as well as his children are false.In an exclusive talk with The News, he said that most claims are being propagated to garner public support andsympathy for Dr Aafia but are one-sided and in most instances untrue.

Dr Aafia Siddiqui, suspected of having links to terrorist organizations, has been charged in a criminal complaintfiled in a court of New York on account of attempting to kill US personnel during interrogation and on a charge ofassaulting US officers and employees in Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 17, 2008. Subsequently Dr Aafia wasimprisoned in Bagram for 18 days before being taken to the US for a trial.

Due to pressure from Aafia Siddiquis family, the Pakistan government has been trying to secure her release fromthe US claiming her to be innocent. Although the US government has guaranteed Aafia the best legal assistanceand a fair trial, her family is adamant that she be sent back on grounds that the US authorities have beenconsistently torturing her for years.

Aafias release cannot be secured by propagating stories based on falsehood and deception, commented DrAmjad Khan, in an interview with The News. Dr Amjad, who was married to Dr Aafia for seven years until theirdivorce in October 2002, said Aafias family and supporters should not believe that truth will not be revealed andmere lies will help in securing Aafias repatriation.

He added that he is disappointed with the governments disregard for the law when officials handed over hiseldest son, Ahmad, to his aunt Dr Fowzia Siddiqui on his return from Afghanistan last year instead of his legalguardian, his father. The government made no effort to locate me despite the fact that I am Ahmads real andlegal guardian. My address in Karachi has not changed for the past 30 years. Ever since I returned from the USafter our divorce, I have been living with my family, he said adding: Both the Minister for Interior Rehman Malikand Dr Fowzia have been taking credit for obtaining Ahmads release even though there was not a stone I leftunturned to locate my missing children and obtain their custody according to law.

Providing documentary proof of the legal agreement between him and Dr Aafia following their divorce, Dr Amjadsaid that he had been financially supporting his three children Ahmed, Marium and Suleiman until the familystopped accepting the cheques he had been mailing. After the agreement they accepted my cheques till March2003. After that my cheques were being returned from Aafias home and that got me worried. Soon after I learntthat in April 2003, Aafia and our children had been picked up by agencies. Meanwhile, he received disturbingreports from the family that Aafia chose to leave Karachi with her children as she feared an attack from him.

Curious to locate the whereabouts of his children, Dr Amjad sought the help of the police and governmentofficials to find them. I was aware of Aafias violent personality and extremist views and suspected herinvolvement in Jihadi activities. My fear later proved to be true when during Uzair Parachas trial in the US in2004, the real purpose of Aafias trip to the US (between December 23, 2002 and January 3, 2003) wasrevealed.

Elaborating, Dr Amjad disclosed that he later learnt from media reports that Aafias family claimed she made this

trip to the US for job interviews in December at a time when universities were closed for winter holidays. I alsofound it very odd that on the one hand Aafia insisted on leaving the US after September 11, 2001, claiming thecountry was unsafe for us and our children because the US government was abducting Muslim children, and onthe other hand took the risk of travelling to that country again without fearing that she may be captured and maynever see our children again.

While Dr Aafia was in the US, the authorities had been closely watching her, added Amjad. They soon issued thefirst global wanted for questioning alert for the couple in March 2003. At that time, the agencies did not knowwe were divorced and I was also unaware of Aafias involvement with two other terror suspects, Majid Khan andAmmar Al-Baluchi. They wanted me to persuade Aafia to appear for the interview with them and clear thecharges leveled against her just as I had done. That is when she went underground and it later became apparentwhy she chose to disappear, disclosed Dr Amjad.

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Sharing details of his unsuccessful marriage with Dr Aafia, Dr Amjad told The News that since their marriage wasarranged, he was unaware of Aafias violent behaviour. She got hysterical fits when she became angry and wouldphysically attack me, but I put up with it for the sake of our children.

Although Amjad and Aafia both were inclined towards religion, he found her opinion towards Jihad to be of anextreme nature that sometimes made him uncomfortable. He became particularly suspicious of his wifesintentions when soon after the 9/11 attacks, she compelled Amjad to leave Boston (where Amjad was completinghis residency) and move to Afghanistan where she claimed he would be more useful.

The couple, however, chose to come to Pakistan instead for a vacation and discuss the matter with Amjads

family. It was here that his parents noticed Aafias violent behaviour towards their son on several occasions,particularly when she openly asked for khula (divorce) when Amjad declined to go to Afghanistan. ThereforeAmjad decided to file for a divorce as Aafia was adamant she wanted to go. I tried my best to save ourmarriage, but divorce was inevitable, he recalls.

However, after mutual consent, the couple signed a legal agreement whereby the custody of the three minorswas given to Aafia, while Amjad was required to pay for their education and maintenance. Although theagreement says I am permitted to meet my children once a week, I was not allowed to do so, claimed Amjadsharing a copy of the agreement during the interview.

Based on his past experience, Amjad says he had reason to worry about his children. I feared Aafia mightpursue her political ambitions to the detriment of our childrens welfare so I couldnt help following her case afterher family claimed she had been abducted. Amjad added that he was tempted to use other means to try andrescue his children in these past five years especially since he had evidence that were missing or kidnapped, he

claimed. But I chose to be patient and pursued the case according to the law. He also filed a case in courtagainst Aafia to obtain the custody of his children.

When the Court was unsuccessful, I requested the HRCP to include my childrens names in their missing personspetition in the Supreme Court and also appealed to the Chief Justice for Suo Moto action as this was the onlycase where three minors were involved.

However, after Ahmad was released and handed over to Dr Fowzia last year, Dr Amjad requested her to allow himto visit his son, but she refused. At first she said Ahmed was mentally unfit to talk, and then claimed that hewas not my son but an orphan adopted by Aafia and US reports that his DNA matched Aafias were also cooked.I refused to accept any of that as I had identified my son as soon as I saw a report on the electronic media ofhis arrest in Afghanistan.

When questioned on what basis was Aafias familydenying a meeting with his son, Amjad stated that the family

is punishing him for divorcing Aafia. Aafias mother and Dr Fowzia had warned me at the time of our divorcethat they would take revengeby not letting me meet the children, he said adding But now they arediscouraging a meeting with Ahmad because they fear Ahmad will reveal the truth about Aafias activities andwhereabouts of his siblings over these years.

He added that Dr Fowzia had similarly threatened him several years ago by taking a picture of Aafia while shewas asleep after she injured her upper lip (by a milk bottle)in an accident. Dr Fowzia warned Amjad that if hetried to divorce Aafia, she would use the picture against him alleging him to be an abusive husband. It wasmade to appear in the picture that Aafia was badly injured. Today, the same picture is being circulated in themedia to claim that Aafia was tortured for years in Bagram, he revealed.

Furthermore, Amjad listed the several allegations leveled against him over the years to justify his not meeting hischildren: First they accused him of kidnapping his three children soon after his divorce with Aafia. To deny thisaccusation, he lodged a complaint against the family with the Sindh Police and requested officials to help him

locate his children, but to no avail.

Later, Aafias family accused him of being an abusive husband and father preventing the children from meetingtheir father. Aafias mother has also accused me in the media of changing the childrens names whereas in realitythey had resorted to these tactics to conceal the children.

He alleged that Dr Fowzia also used the Asian Human Rights Commission, an NGO based in Honk Kong, tomislead the government about his two missing children. The AHRC received the information about my twomissing children being in an orphanage in Afghanistan from Dr Fowzia, who was diverting attention away fromthe place where the children really are. claimed Amjad.

Earlier, when Aafias father died, the family held Amjad responsible for his death too claiming he suffered a strokeafter he saw the divorce document. That is simply not true because I mailed the document two days after

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