US-Pak scientist Aafias husband faces Guantanamo military tribunal

Ammar Al Balochi, the second husband of American educated Pakistani neuroscientist and the most significant US capture in the fight against terrorism in five years, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, is facing trial by a military tribunal in Guantanamo on terrorism-related charges.

Washington, Sep 8 : Ammar Al Balochi, the second husband of American educated Pakistani neuroscientist and "the most significant" US capture in the fight against terrorism in five years, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, is facing trial by a military tribunal in Guantanamo on terrorism-related charges.

Siddiqui is believed to have married an al Qaeda man by the name of Ammar al-Balochi, a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Balochi is the nephew of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. He was arrested on April 29, 2003, in Karachi.

US officials claimed that he acted as an intermediary between Arab and Pakistani fighters of al Qaeda.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed also used Balochi as a messenger. Information retrieved from him enabled the FBI and the ISI to make several more arrests in Pakistan.

There were six Pakistanis left at the United Sataes detention facility, one of whom, Qari Muhammad Saeed Iqbal, was repatriated to Pakistan recently and is now undergoing debriefing by the authorities at home.

The other four still have to get their fate decided. Their names are, Majid Khan, a taxi driver from Baltimore, Abdul Rabbani, Ahmed Ghulam Rabbani and Saifullah Paracha.

An eight-member delegation of Pakistani senators led by Mushahid Hussain is expected to arrive here at the end of this month for a short visit to Guantanamo.

US authorities do not permit anyone to meet or even see the detainees. All the visitors are shown are some of the prisons where these men are being kept, as well as kitchens and medical facilities, the Daily Times reported.

However, they are briefed by officials in charge of the vast prison built from scratch after the first prisoners were brought here from Afghanistan and elsewhere following the invasion of Afghanistan in the aftermath of 9/11.

ANI