Who is Aafia Siddiqui? Pak scientist serving 86-year sentence in Texas

New Delhi: The hostage incident at Texas synagogue has brought in the question – who is Aafia Siddiqui? A live stream of the Shabbat morning service at the synagogue on Facebook captured audio of a man talking loudly when the incident started. According to the law enforcement officials, the hostage-taker demanded the release of the Pakistani scientist Aafia Siddiqui.
Who is Aafia Siddiqui? She is a Pakistani national who had studied in the United States at Brandeis University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
After September 11 attack in the US, the FBI and Justice Department described her as an “al-Qaida operative”.
Claiming that a handwritten note which talks about the construction of ‘dirty bombs’ and a list of US locations to be targeted has been found from her possession, she was taken into custody in Afghanistan in 2008.
Later, it was reported that in the questioning room in Afghanistan, she snatched a rifle from one of the US Army officers and opened fire at investigating team.