Sunday October 10, 2004

ISLAMABAD, October 11 (Online): Ansar Burney, a human rights activist, has strongly condemned the sentencing of three years imprisonment to a two-years old baby girl by a Political Administration Court in Southern Waziristan and termed the verdict a blatant violation of UN Human Rights Charter and child rights.

Four children, Zarmina (2), Khalil Muhammad (3), Iran Khan (7) and Tahir Khan (8) were all convicted and sentenced to three years in prison, where they have been languishing with their families.

Ansar Burney urged President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to intervene and order the immediate release of the innocent children.

In tribal parts of Pakistan that are governed by the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) of 1901 - close relatives of outlaws can be arrested and imprisoned in their place and the political administrations of these areas are known to excessively abuse their powers.

Burney said that there were more than 80 juvenile inmates detained in various jails of the Frontier under the FCR - 17 of them under the age of 12 years were currently languishing in the Central Jail Haripur alone, serving for crimes they had never committed.

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