NEW YORK (Agencies) -- A senior Pakistani Embassy diplomat met with Dr. Aafia Siddqui in the Brooklyn detention center on Saturday after U. S. authorities agreed to Pakistan’s request for consular access to the detainee, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported on Sunday.

Many say Dr. Siddqui was the only female prisoner, ‘Prisoner 650’, held at the U.S. detention center 60 kilometers from Kabul.
British journalist Yvonne Ridley, who was captured by the Taleban and later converted to Islam, visited Pakistan recently and called on the international community to work for the release of Dr. Siddqui, whom she calls a “grey lady”.
One of her attorney’s, Gideon Oliver, and a representative of U.S. authorities were also present during Counselor Faqir Asif Hussain’s meeting with Dr. Siddique.
Afterwards, Faqir Asif Hussain said he assured Dr. Siddqui that the embassy would make every possible effort to ensure that she was not discriminated against and that her rights as an under-trial prisoner were respected. Also, efforts would be made to ensure that she was provided appropriate medical treatment.
She also asked that the government of Pakistan to make sure that her trial is just, fair and transparent.
Dr. Siddiqui also requested that she be provided halal food and a copy of the Holy Quran and local timings for prayers as well as a good female doctor. The Pakistani diplomat conveyed these requests to the U.S. authorities who promised to provide these facilities to her.
Dr. Siddiqui was transported to the United States last week on charges of shooting at U.S. soldiers while in detention in Afghanistan, a U.S. attorney said.
U.S. authorities say Dr. Siddiqui received a biology degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and wrote a doctoral thesis on neurological sciences at Brandeis University, outside Boston, and that she could have used her knowledge of the United States to support terrorists trying to slip into the country and plot attacks.
She is being held without bail. Regarding charges against her, Dr. Siddiqui did not confide to the Pakistani counselor anything on the advice of her attorney.
However, the sister of Aafia Siddiqui said last week her sibling was innocent and accused U.S. forces of secretly holding her for the last five years, AFP reported.
“What a mockery that after five years in detention Aafia is suddenly discovered in Afghanistan,” her younger sister Fauzia Siddiqui, who is a medical doctor, told a news conference in Karachi.
“I decided to break my silence to say that one is innocent until proven guilty. My sister is innocent and has never been actually accused of any crime,” said her sister.
She added: “Aafia was tortured for five years until one day U.S. authorities announce that they have found her in Afghanistan, which shows how they abused their power and tortured an innocent woman without committing any crime.”
Dr. Siddqui, born in 1972, obtained a biology degree in the United States and later a doctorate in neurological science. She was married with three children and led a comfortable life, Adnkronos International (AKI) reported.
But she disappeared in 2003 after returning to Pakistan and then was added to the list of most dangerous Al-Qaeda suspects compiled by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2004.
Dr. Siddiqui was also included in a list published by Amnesty International in June 2007 as someone for whom there was “evidence of secret detention by the United States and whose fate and whereabouts remain unknown.”
Several former prisoners including British Muslim Moazzam Begg, who was held at Bagram before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and later released, and some Arab detainees tell the story of prisoner number 650, the only woman at Bagram. Their accounts claimed that the detained woman cried all the time and appeared to have lost her sanity.
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