Thousands hold anti-US rally in Karachi

Protesters in Karachi have taken to the streets to hold anti-US demonstrations and show solidarity with female Pakistani scientist Afia Siddiqui, who has been handed an 86-year jail term by a US court.

The rally was held on Christmas Eve to show solidarity with Siddiqui and her family.

Thousands of people including several members of Christian community chanted anti-US slogans and burned an effigy of US President Barack Obama.

They say Siddiqui’s trial in the US was a complete mockery of the legal process.

In an Interview with Press TV, Siddiqui’s sister appealed to President Obama for her immediate release.

She is being held at a prison in Carswell, Texas, described by her family members as one of the most notorious prisons facilitates in the world.

There have been numerous rallies in the country over Siddiqui’s case so far and her release has become one of the national issues in Pakistan.

She vanished in Karachi with her three children on March 30, 2003. The next day it was reported in local newspapers that she had been taken into custody on terrorism charges.

US officials allege Siddiqui was seized on July 17, 2008 by Afghan security forces in Ghazni Province and claim that documents, including formulas for explosives and chemical weapons, were found in her handbag.

They say that while she was being interrogated, she grabbed a US warrant officer’s M-4 rifle and fired two shots at FBI agents and military personnel but missed and that the warrant officer then fired back, hitting her in the torso.

However, human rights organizations have cast doubt on the accuracy of the US account of the event.

Many political activists believe she was Prisoner 650 of the US detention facility in Bagram, Afghanistan, where they say she was tortured for five years until one day US authorities announced that they had found her in Afghanistan.