Ahmed Siddiqui

Ahmed Siddiqui
Ahmed Siddiqui, son of Aafia Siddiqui, in US custody, in 2008. Ahmed Siddiqui, son of Aafia Siddiqui, in US custody, in 2008.
Born	1996
Nationality	American, Pakistani
Known for	held in secret CIA detention camps

Ahmed Siddiqui (b. 1996) is an American of Pakistani descent who described being kidnapped with his mother and two younger siblings in March of 2003.

Life in the US

Ahmed's parents had been students in the United States in the 1990s, where his mother Aafia Siddiqui earned a PhD in biochemistry. While living in the US his parents started a charity. They would later be identified as suspected terrorists. Ahmed and his younger sister were born in the US, and lived there until 2002, when his parents returned to Pakistan, and their marriage broke up. Aafia was pregnant when the marriage broke up, and his younger brother was born in Pakistan in late 2002 or early 2003.

Arrival in Pakistan, 2002

After the marraige broke up Aafia made a trip back to the United States, to look for an academic job. In March 2003 Aafia and all three children were living with relatives in Karachi, Pakistan.

Disappearance, March 2003

Aafia and all three children disappeared during a trip to Karachi airport on March 23, 2003. Aafia's relatives went on record with their belief that her ex-husband's denunciations had led to the capture of Aafia and her children by security officials, and that they were being held in secret prisons. Her ex-husband claimed she was at large, living underground, as a ploy to prevent him getting access to his children.

President Asif Ali Zardari request

According to the Arab News Pakistan's President, Asif Ali Zardari, had personally requested Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai return Dr Aafia's children to their family in Pakistan.

Reappearance and capture, Ghazni Afghanistan, July 2008

In the summer of 2008 Aafia and a teenage boy were reported to have been apprehended by Afghan police. It was later confirmed that the teenage boy was her eldest son Ahmed.

Transfer to the custody of Pakistani security officials

On August 26 2008 The United States State Department confirmed that the youth captured with Aafia Siddiqi on July 17, 2008 was her son, American citizen Ahmed Siddiqi.

Ahmed was transferred to the custody of Pakistani security officials. Joanne Mariner, Director of Human Rights Watch, criticized Afghanistan officials for transferring Ahmed to Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security -- the NDS due to its reputation for using torture as an interrogation tool. Mariner pointed out that under both Afghan law Ahmed was too young to be held criminally responsible.

Return to the custody of his maternal family

Ahmed was returned to the custody of his maternal family, while his mother was taken to New York City to stand trial for attempted murder. The whereabouts of Ahmed's younger siblings remained a mystery. During her interrogations following her 2008 arrest Aafia described visions of her youngest son as an angel, as he had died in custody with her during the period 2003-2008.

When a girl who may have been his younger sister Maryam was returned to the Ahmed's family, tests to confirm her identity were inconclusive. His aunt Fawzia expressed doubt that the girl was her neice Maryam. The Daily Times reported that the girl was only able to speak English and Dari, a dialect of the Persian language, and that when Ahmed was returned he too could only speak English and Dari.

First public statement

In late August 2010, British journalist Yvonne Ridley, who had first reported that Aafia and her children had been held in the Bagram Theater internment facility reported that she had acquired a statement taken from Ahmed in 2008. She reported that the statement was taken from Ahmed by an American official when he was released.

The statement is the first from Ahmed. The statement is the first to appear to confirm Aafia's dream that her youngest child was dead. The statement, as quoted by Ridley, read:

“I do not remember the date but it seems a long time ago i remember we were going to Islamabad in a car when we were stopped by different cars and high roof ones. My mother was screaming and I was screaming as they took me away, I looked around and saw my baby brother on the ground and there was blood. My mother was crying and screaming. Then they put something on my face. I smelt and don’t remember anything. “I woke up I was in a room. There were American soldiers in uniform and plain clothes people. They kept me in different places. If I cried or didn’t listen, they beat me and tied me and chained me. There were English speaking, Pashto and Urdu speaking. I had no courage to ask who they were. At times, for a long time, I was alone in a small room. Then I was taken to some childrens prison where there were lots of other children. “The American Consular[sic], who came to me in Kabul jail, said, ‘Your name is Ahmed. You are American. Your mother’s name is Aafia Siddiqui and your younger brother is dead. After that they took me away from the kids’ prison and I met the Pakistani consular [sic], and I talked to my aunt (Fowzia Siddiqui)”.