Son of woman accused of soldier attack 'in custody'

AP
Published: August 27, 2008, 09:13

New York: The 11-year-old son of a Pakistani woman accused of trying to shoot a US Army captain is believed to be in custody, US authorities confirmed on Tuesday.

US Attorney Michael Garcia notified a defence lawyer for Aafia Siddiqui in a letter dated Friday that the boy, believed to be US citizen Ahmed Siddiqui, was taken into custody in mid-July when authorities arrested his mother outside an Afghan governor's compound.

Garcia said authorities can't say for sure because the boy claimed that his parents were killed in an October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan and that he had been traveling with Siddiqui since then, though he knew her as Saliha. A Northern Pakistan earthquake in October 2005 killed about 78,000 people.

Garcia said FBI agents last Thursday compared pictures of Siddiqui's three children with the boy and realised he might be her son. He said a preliminary DNA analysis demonstrated that the boy was Siddiqui's son, but further tests were under way to ensure the finding was correct.

The US government has said Siddiqui was with a teenage boy when she was taken into custody after she was found carrying an explosives-making manual, bottles and jars of chemicals in gel and liquid form, and descriptions of US landmarks.

A day later, she picked up a US Army officer's rifle and fired it at officers and employees of the FBI and the US armed services, an FBI agent assigned to a terrorism task force said in a court document.

AP