Al-Qaeda repeats call to take revenge over Pak neuroscientist’s US sentencing

DUBAI - Al-Qaeda has repeated calls to avenge Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, who was sentenced to 86 years in prison by a US federal court for trying to kill American agents and military officers after Afghan police detained her in 2008.

In a video published by US-based SITE Intelligence Group, Al-Qaeda leader Abu Yahya al-Libi called upon Pakistanis to strike American aircraft, centers, and convoys in revenge for the imprisonment of Siddiqui.

“By Allah, a single shot to the face of those unbeliever aggressors is tougher on them and has a greater effect on their persons than hundreds of demonstrations and thousands of screams, no matter if the throats of the protests become hoarse,” the News quoted Yahya, as saying.

Last month, Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had also called for vengeance.

Siddiqui, a mother of three, was found guilty of grabbing a rifle at a police station in the Afghan town of Ghazni where she was being interrogated in July 2008 and of trying to gun down a group of US servicemen and FBI agents.

Prosecutors said that she opened fire, shouting “death to America!”

However, the 38-year-old had denied the charges, saying that the interrogators had fired on her when she had attempted to flee.

Many of Siddiqui’s supporters, including international human rights organizations, have claimed that Siddiqui was not an extremist and that she and her young children were illegally detained, interrogated and tortured by Pakistani intelligence or U.S. authorities or both during her five-year disappearance.

The U.S. and Pakistan governments have denied all such claims. (ANI)