Ahmed Siddiqui (American youth)
| Ahmed Siddiqui | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1996 (age 20–21) United States |
| Arrested | 2003-03 Pakistan US and Pakistani security officials |
| Released | 2008 Afghanistan |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Detained at | Guantanamo Bay camp |
| Status | Returned to his maternal family |
| Parents | Aafia Siddiqui, Amjad Mohammed Khan |
Ahmed Siddiqui (born 1996) is an American of Pakistani descent who described being kidnapped with his mother and two younger siblings in March 2003.
Ahmed's parents had been students in the United States in the 1990s, where his mother Aafia Siddiqui earned a PhD in cognitive neuropsychology. 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 USA, 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.
After the marriage 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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