This week the “cancer” of the Islamic State (IS) appeared to be spreading from Syria and Iraq into the proximity of India when it was revealed that an email sent by the militant group to the family of a hostage, now executed, called for the release of Dr. Afia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist facing life in prison in the U.S. on assault charges linked to terrorism.
In IS’ last email, on August 12, to the family of murdered journalist
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Dr. Siddiqui, an MIT-trained neuroscientist, was arrested in Afghanistan in 2008 and discovered to have materials relating to chemical weapons, dirty bombs and viruses, leading to suspicions that she may have been planning attacks against “American enemies.”
She was subsequently jailed by a U.S. court for 86 years, although her name resurfaced in news circles once again in 2011 after the Pakistan government reportedly offered to exchange her for
According to some reports, Dr. Siddiqui is seen as “an Islamic ‘damsel in distress’, who has been persecuted for her faith,” and sympathy for over her arrest, detention and extradition to the U.S. is “widespread in Pakistan.”
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