Soon After Imran Awan’s Other Wife Called Police On Him, Gunmen Shot At Her

Screenshot from One America News, used with permission)
  • Former Democratic IT aide Imran Awan is simultaneously married to two women
  • Gunmen shot at one’s family home soon after she told police Imran kept her “like a slave”
  • She obtained restraining orders soon after

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’ indicted former IT aide, Imran Awan, was married to two Virginia women simultaneously, and 15 days after one of them told police that Imran kept her “like a slave,” gunmen shot into her family home, according to police reports filed in Pakistan.

The shooting at Sumaira Siddique allegedly occurred in Pakistan in August 2016 — days after the House Inspector General informed the Committee on House Administration that Imran allegedly committed cybersecurity violations. In a report filed with the local police, Siddique’s father, who owns the home, said he believed Siddique had been targeted.

The shooting was unsolved, though in a separate case, Imran’s stepmother, Samina Gilani, alleged in court papers filed in April 2017 that Imran said he would “do harm to me and my family members back in Pakistan and one of my cousins here in Baltimore.” He also “threatened that he has the power to kidnap my family members back in Pakistan.”

Imran and his family also had access to all the emails and files of 1 in 5 House Democrats. The IG found the IT aide made “unauthorized access” to House data during the 2016 election at the same time Wasserman Schultz was dealing with the hack of the Democratic National Committee.

Fairfax County, Virginia police responded to disputes between Imran and Siddique in October 2015, November 2015 and July 2016, police records show. In one case, the police report said Siddique had “cut[s] on [her] stomach and arm.”

She also told police that Imran treated “her bad,” kept her “like a slave,” and that she “wanted info on how to obtain a restraining order against him,” according to a July 18, 2016 report.

Siddique then went back to her father’s home in Pakistan where, two weeks after the “slave” police report, assailants shot bullets at the house, a Pakistani police report and a local newspaper article.

“[A]round 2 AM, between August 1st and August 2nd, unknown gunmen shot multiple fires at my house and fled,” according to a police report filed on Aug. 3, 2016 by Siddique’s father, who noted his daughter was at his home at the time.

Authorities appeared reluctant to find the perpetrators, according to an Aug. 8 report in a local newspaper.

“A week after a Pakistani American female lawyer’s home in Pakistan was attacked by unknown gunmen, the police has still not taken action,” the Daily Ausaf article said. “They managed to register the case with the police station Shahkot, after an intervention by the US embassy but police has not taken any further action to find the perpetrators.”

Siddique’s father, Haji Rana Muhammad Ikram, also “said that the police has been unable to resolve the mysterious firing case,” the article continued. “He also said that his daughter has no animosity with anyone, neither she received any threatening calls during her stay in Pakistan.”

Imran has political connections in Pakistan stemming from his position working for the U.S. Congress, according to a 2009 article by the Pakistani paper Dawn. The paper reported his connections allowed him to get criminal charges against his father dropped in Pakistan.

In contrast to Wasserman Schultz’s outspokenness about Russian hackers, she told Florida media that Imran and his family “were being persecuted” and faced “racial, ethnic and religious profiling.” Her spokesman, David Damron, did not respond to questions about the Muslim women who expressed fears about Imran.

Imran’s other wife, Hina Alvi — who Wasserman Schultz also employed and who sources familiar with the couple said was Imran’s first cousin — said in court documents filed in Pakistan in September 2017 that Imran threatened violence against her in order to control her. Alvi also said Imran committed fraud and polygamy.

Imran retained a former aide to Hillary Clinton, Chris Gowen, as his lawyer in the congressional case. Gowen said in an interview with Sharyl Attkisson that Imran had no second wife and the threat accusations were a lie made up by “fake reporters.” He also said the cybersecurity and theft allegations in the IG report are false.

The Daily Caller News Foundation traveled to Pakistan and obtained the Pakistani marriage license between Imran and Siddique and the Pakistani police report and news article about a shooting. TheDCNF also obtained multiple Virginia restraining orders that said she and Imran had “cohabitated previously within 12 months” and ordering him to stay away from her, as well as three Virginia police records involving altercations between the pair.

The restraining orders say “either the Petitioner is in immediate and present danger of family abuse or there is sufficient evidence to establish probable cause that family abuse has recently occurred.” They add that “‘family abuse’ means any act involving violence, force or threat that results in bodily injury or places one in reasonable apprehension of death, sexual assault [or] bodily injury.”

Gowen previously lashed out at Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert, saying, “The outrageous conspiracy theorists driving a false narrative through the press should be reminded that Imran Awan is a husband and a father, not a political pawn.”

Siddique obtained the first restraining order against Imran on Jan. 26, 2017 — a few months after the shooting and after she returned to the U.S. At that time, the Capitol Police were monitoring him for suspicious activity, eight days after he wired $300,000 to Pakistan and a week before he was banned from the House computer network.

The Capitol Police began monitoring him in October 2016, but did not arrest him until July 2017, and he has not been charged with the alleged misconduct the IG identified. He was charged with bank fraud and his next court date is July 3.

No one answered the door at the address listed as Siddique’s in the police reports. But neighbors and associates said it was well-known in their Pakistani-American circles that Imran had taken two wives under Islamic law and that both wives lived in Virginia.

Timeline:

  • 10/16/2015 Siddique calls police to her apartment in Virginia; they observe “cut on stomach and arm”
  • 11/16/2015 Fairfax, Virginia police report on telephone threats involving Imran and Siddique
  • 4/2016 Inspector General investigation into Imran’s finances begins
  • 7/18/2016 Siddique calls police to her apartment and tells them Imran “treat her bad and keep her there like a slave
  • 7/24/2016 Inspector General alerts Congress to cybersecurity issues related to Imran
  • 8/2/2016 Siddique goes to Pakistan and an unknown gunman fires into Siddique’s home in Pakistan
  • 10/2016 Capitol Police and FBI begin monitoring Imran
  • 11/18/2016 Siddique’s landlord files a claim against Imran for ceasing to pay her rent
  • 1/26/2017 Virginia judge grants protective order barring Imran from contact with Siddique
  • 2/2/2017 House authorities ban Imran from the congressional network
  • 2/10/2017 Restraining order extended
  • 4/24/2017 Restraining order extended again and new hearing set for July 20, 2017
  • 7/24/2017 Imran arrested at airport for bank fraud
  • 8/22/2017 Wasserman Schultz says Imran is being “persecuted” and invokes his children
  • 9/8/2017 Imran’s lawyer says, “The outrageous conspiracy theorists driving a false narrative through the press should be reminded that Imran Awan is a husband and a father, not a political pawn.”
  • 9/13/2017 Imran’s other wife and fellow congressional aide, Hina Alvi, files papers in Pakistan saying Imran threatened violence and committed fraud and polygamy

Editor’s Note:

The Daily Caller, Inc., the Daily Caller News Foundation, and Luke Rosiak have settled a defamation lawsuit brought by Imran Awan, Abid Awan, Jamal Awan, Tina Alvi, and Rao Abbas (“the Plaintiffs”), in the D.C. Superior Court, Awan et al. v. The Daily Caller, Inc. et al., No. 2020 CA 000652 B (D.C. Super.) (“The Lawsuit”).
 
The Plaintiffs filed the Lawsuit in 2020, alleging that they were defamed by statements made by The Daily Caller entities and Mr. Rosiak, including statements in Obstruction of Justice, a 2019 book authored by Mr. Rosiak and published by Regnery Publishing, a business of Salem Media Group, Inc., about the Plaintiffs’ work for the U.S. House of Representatives. In response, The Daily Caller entities and Mr. Rosiak each denied liability and contested the Plaintiffs’ claims. 
 
None of the Defendants has admitted to any fault as part of this settlement. Nevertheless, The Daily Caller entities and Mr. Rosiak recognize that no charges have ever been filed against the Plaintiffs relating to their congressional IT work.

Wajid Ali Syed reported from Faisalabad, Pakistan.

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