The family of scientist Aafia Siddiqui on Thursday vowed to launch a "movement" to get her released from jail in America. Her lawyers immediately pledged they would appeal the sentence. In Karachi, Fouzia Siddiqui told reporters all of Pakistan would agitate to get her sister freed.
"I was alone eight years ago when I started the campaign to release my sister, but from now on it will be the Aafia movement as the whole nation is with me," she said Around 200 activists from Jamaat-i-Islami and various groups gathered outside Siddiqui's Karachi home after the sentence.
They chanted slogans including "Down with America" and "Allah-o-Akbar" (Allah is great) soon after news of the sentence filtered through. Fowzia Siddiqui criticised President Asif Zardari's government for its inability to get her sister released. "This is a slap on our rulers and all the rulers of the Muslim Ummah (nations)." "The conviction clearly shows how enslaved our government is. The previous government (President Pervez Musharraf's) had sold Aafia once, but the present government has sold her time and again," she said.
"You (the government) have shown that you are not the representatives of our people, you are traitors who have got the whole nation enslaved," she cried. "Aafia will certainly return sooner or later, but no one knows if our rulers will be there or not." Later, around 30 angry protesters burned a US flag shouting anti-US and anti-Zardari slogans, an AFP photographer said.
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