The protesters, belonging to the politico-religious party, JI, and Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT), rallied through the city streets after Friday prayers to condemn the US court's verdict against what they said 'innocent' Dr Aafia. Soon after the Friday prayer, 'Aafia Release March' was taken out from Jhangir Park where the protesters from IJT expressed their anger through spreading the US flag on ground and placed shoes onto it.
With heavy contingents of law enforcers patrolling and watching main thoroughfares of the city, the marchers rallied through various roads and gathered at Regal Chowck to stage protest demonstration. The students, holding placards and banners inscribed with slogans like 'Down with America', shouted slogans in favour of Dr Aafia's immediate release. "We strongly condemn the decision to jail Dr Aafia for 86 years," read a banner.
With a US flag lying under shoes in middle of the road, an office bearer of IJT, Husaini, told the rally that the court order had made mockery of the international law. He questioned as to how the woman scientist had reached Bagram Airbase to carry out the alleged attack.
"She along with her two children was arrested by the American and Pakistani agencies from Karachi and taken to the airbase... under which law she was arrested and taken to Afghanistan," he questioned amid ear-splitting slogans. The rally was told that the decision would let terrorism flourish across the world.
The peaceful rally turned violent when the protesters to the surprise of media and police started running towards the residence of US Consul General in Karachi and staged a sit-in near Trinity School at Fatima Jinnah Road. Police using batons and teargases tried to disperse the angry protesters and arrested at least 15 of them. Those arrested were taken to Artillery and Preedy police stations.
According to IJT spokesman, some 18 students injured were injured in shelling and baton charge by police. Later, the IJT activists held protest demonstration at Karachi Press Club demanding the release of the detainees. Later, hundreds of women activists from the rightwing JI also gathered outside the party headquarters, Idara Noor-e-Haque, to protest and condemn the verdict.
Former JI Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Muhammad Hussain Mehanti, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman and Aafia's sister Dr Fauzia Siddiqui addressed the gathering. The speakers, terming the decree as unjust, demanded of Washington to set the 'innocent' Pakistani scientist free without any further delay. They also warned that non-compliance by the US would trigger countrywide protests by the supporters of politico-religious party. After speeches, they dispersed peacefully.
The blockade of roads disturbed the vehicular traffic on some of the linked roads with commuters searching for alternative routes to reach their destinations. "Pakistani rulers are equally responsible for the US verdict against Aafia," Qazi said. He claimed that it was now clear that there was no justice in the United States where the courts were protecting their armed forces for their atrocities abroad. The women protesters were holding banners that termed Dr Aafia's imprisonment as the "American Judicial Terror".
AFP adds: Activists poured into the streets on Friday shouting "Death to America" and burning effigies of President Barack Obama after a US court jailed a woman scientist for 86 years. In a case that has been condemned across the nuclear-armed Muslim nation of 167 million, the government said it would petition Washington to secure the repatriation of the mother of three on humanitarian grounds.
The protestors shouted "Death to America," "Allahu akbar" (God is greater), "Free Aafia Siddiqui" and "Down with the US system of justice". In Karachi, Fowzia Siddiqui, who has vowed to lead a national movement to campaign for her sister's freedom, told a rally of hundreds of heavily veiled women that the Pakistani government had failed miserably. "The sentence bears testimony to the fact that this government is puppet of the US... We are peaceful people and our aim is to bring back Aafia."
About 1,000 people attended another rally called by a hardline Islamic party, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), in Karachi late Friday. Amid anti-US slogans, its leader Aurangzeb Farooqi urged the Muslim world to play its role in securing Siddiqui's release. Hundreds more took to the streets in Pakistan's second largest city of Lahore. Cricket hero-turned-politician Imran Khan led a rally to condemn the verdict as "unethical and inhuman," an AFP reporter said.
They condemned President Asif Ali Zardari, while Khan, who heads the party Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (Pakistan Movement for Justice), warned that the verdict could fan anti-Americanism across Pakistan and the Muslim world. In Islamabad, police stopped dozens of Islamic students from marching on the US embassy to hand over a protest note. The crowd shouted "Crush America," "Siddiqui is our sister" and "We will bring her back."
Dozens of lawyers and activists blocked traffic in the central city of Multan, shouting "Down with America" and setting fire to an effigy of Obama and former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, an AFP reporter said. Siddiqui, 38, who as a student excelled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was found guilty of grabbing a rifle at an Afghan police station where she was being interrogated in 2008 and of trying to shoot US servicemen.
Prosecutors said she picked up the weapon and opened fire on servicemen and FBI representatives trying to take her into detention. She missed and in a struggle was herself shot by one of the US soldiers. Defence lawyers argued there was no physical evidence, such as fingerprints or gunpowder traces, to show Siddiqui even grabbed the rifle. Siddiqui's lawyers have said they will appeal against the sentence and her family vowed to launch a "movement" to get her released from jail.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told the upper house of parliament: "We will use every means to bring her back. Doctor Aafia is the daughter of the nation. We fought for her and we will fight politically to bring her back." Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the government would petition the US administration to review the sentence on a "humanitarian basis" and request that Siddiqui be handed over to Pakistan and dealt with under Pakistani law.
Asked under what circumstances Siddiqui could return home, the foreign ministry said Obama could pardon her, or an agreement could be reached for her to serve at least part of her sentence in Pakistan. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called on Islamabad and Washington to negotiate urgently for her repatriation on humanitarian grounds. "We fear that the verdict will be misunderstood in Pakistan and bring relations between the two allies in the war on terror under increased strain," said its chairman Mehdi Hasan.