Who is Aafia Siddiqui?: Texas hostage-taker sought release of this Pak prisoner

The man who took hostages inside a Texas synagogue had sought the release of a Pakistani woman who is in jail on suspicion of attempting to kill American service members in Afghanistan. Aafia Siddiqui is serving an 86-year prison sentence after being found guilty in Manhattan in 2010 of attempting to shoot US military officials while captured in Afghanistan two years prior. It was an important conviction in the fight against international extremism for the Justice Department, which had accused Siddiqui of being an al-Qaeda operative. However, her supporters, many of whom believed she was innocent, saw the case as an example of an overzealous post-September 11 American justice system.