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Karachi: Pakistan has demanded consular access to a Pakistani woman with suspected links to Al Qaida who is due to be arraigned in New York on Tuesday on charges of attempting to murder US troops and FBI agents in Afghanistan.
The New York Times newspaper said Aafia Siddiqui, a US-trained neuroscientist, has links to at least two of 14 suspected high-levelAl Qaida members held at Guantanamo Bay.
Siddiqui was brought to the United States on Monday and is due to be formally accused before a New York court of trying to kill US soldiers and FBI agents at an Afghan police station last month, the US Department of Justice said.
Pakistan's ambassador to Washington made the request for consular access on Monday, Pakistan's state-run news agency said.
Siddiqui and her three children disappeared from her parents' home in the Pakistani port city of Karachi in 2003 and Pakistani human rights groups said they believed the woman had been held at Bagram, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) demanded the Pakistani government intervene and secure her release.
"Dr. Aafia's case is a reminder of the grave injustice done to God knows how many Pakistanis in US detention facilities in Bagram in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, who have been listed as missing" an HRCP statement said.
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