Terror suspect's kin raise worry, doubts
Say domestic abuse could be the culprit
WASHINGTON -- Yesterday, a spokesman for family members of Aafia Siddiqui, one of seven suspects being sought in connection with a possible terrorist attack planned for the summer, appealed to "anyone forcibly holding" her to come forward and suggested that domestic abuse -- not terrorism -- might be behind her disappearance.
"They are extremely distressed by Aafia's disappearance and are desperate to speak with Aafia, if she is still alive," read the statement from Elaine Whitfield Sharp, a lawyer in Marblehead, on behalf of Siddiqui's family in Pakistan. "The best information available to the Siddiqui family is that Aafia was last seen getting into a cab in Pakistan, with her three children, to stay with a family member. She did so at a time when she feared for the lives of herself and her children at the hands of her ex-husband."
But at least one family member believes that Siddiqui -- an MIT-and Brandeis-trained neurologist and former Roxbury resident with ties to alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- has actually been in the custody of Pakistani authorities. Although Attorney General John D. Ashcroft put her face on a wanted poster this Wednesday, a relative of Siddiqui's wrote a major newspaper in Pakistan in March to say that Pakistani officials told relatives that they had arrested her.
The letter, signed by S. H. Faruqi, one of Siddiqui's uncles, said a high-ranking Pakistan official met with Siddiqui's sister, Fawzia, and told her Siddiqui had been arrested and then released from custody. The letter said Fawzia Siddiqui had been instructed to wait for a phone call from her.
The letter in Dawn, Pakistan's most widely-circulated English newspaper, could not be independently confirmed.
Pakistani news outlets widely reported last year that Siddiqui had been taken into custody by Pakistani authorities, but later Pakistani officials said she had not been arrested and that she had instead gone underground.
Yesterday, General Shaukat Sultan, spokesman for the armed forces, declined to comment on whether Siddiqui was in custody. Talat Waseem, a spokesman for the embassy of Pakistan in Washington D.C., said she was not in custody.
The whereabouts of Siddiqui has been a mystery for more than a year, since she returned to Pakistan.
FARAH STOCKMAN 