The high-profile arrest of a Pakistani woman suspected of al-Qaeda links casts a spotlight on an issue her nation’s fledgling civilian Government has been slow to confront: years of official secrecy surrounding the fate of hundreds of people rounded up as terrorism suspects.

Some human rights activists believe that Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani-born neuroscientist, who appeared on Tuesday in federal district court in New York, was originally “disappeared” by Pakistani authorities five years ago, possibly at US behest.

American officials said that Siddiqui had been arrested in Afghanistan last month and flown to the US on Monday after recuperating from a gunshot that authorities said she suffered in a shootout after her capture.

Siddiqui, who trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, initially dropped out of sight in 2003 in Karachi, at a time when US authorities wanted to question her about her suspected ties to the al-Qaeda.

Human rights activists were divided over whether the Siddiqui case would ratchet up pressure on the 5-month-old Pakistani Government to account for the whereabouts of hundreds of people who have been reported missing by their families. Many presumed detainees are believed to be languishing incommunicado, denied access to counsel, but not charged with any crime.

“One hopes that this case is going to bring more attention to the issue of the ‘disappeared’, “ said Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan researcher for Human Rights Watch. His organisation and other rights groups had raised suspicion that Siddiqui was secretly held at some point by US or Pakistani authorities, or both.

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