Pak Taliban Kidnap two Swiss Tourists as Ransom for Aafia Siddiqui

For the past four weeks two Swiss citizens, David O. and Daniela W., both active
police personnel, on a private trip across Pakistan have found themselves in the limelight of the continuous feud involving Pakistan and the US. For reasons best known to them, they were traversing the North-West frontier Province (NWFP) in a VW van. Though a part of their route had a security detail accompanying them, they were apparently kidnapped by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and taken to North Waziristan. 

The fading Swiss neutrality, which once had a sobering influence world-wide and since Switzerland’s entry to the United Nations a decade ago has faded, shows the same limitations that many nations face when confronted with brute force. The TTP demands the release of Aafia Siddiqui, considered by many in Pakistan to be  innocent. Aafia Siddiqui is a neuroscientist, who graduated from MIT, Boston, and later got a doctorate from Brandeis University.  She is now incarcerated in Texas for 86 years, convicted for assault and attempted murder, among other charges.

Aafia Siddiqui’s biography has a remarkable similarity to many others who lead everyday normal lives, and in some cases extremely intelligent and successful ones, but at some stage find themselves caught up in a whirlpool of emotions that inexorably draw them into a maelstorm of blind hate with no escape. A overwhelming sense of being wronged personally and as a community has a path that often ends in deep seated violence. Though she was not directly involved in mass-murders, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the chief planner of 9/11, is purported to have, under torture, mentioned her as an al-Queda operative.

In the meantime, Switzerland is powerless to exert any influence on Pakistan or the TTP. Reports mention that Pakistan attempted to barter a deal for Aaifa Siddiqui’s release when Raymond Davis was arrested. The US is known to be working together with Switzerland, and it may well be that money is paid to free the two, as was done in the case of the CIA operative, Raymond Davis.