PESHAWAR, Jan 26: Organized gangs of drug traffickers are trapping minor and teenaged girls by exploiting their economic and other problems. Lawyers dealing with cases of various minor girls, arrested recently , informed that many of their clients were juvenile offenders, but the courts concerned had been treating them as criminals.

Most of the arrested girls are poor and they have fallen prey to drug pushers for earning livelihood for their families. Usually these criminals ask minor or the teenaged girls to accompany men members of their gangs to different destinations. They use innocent girls as covers. Interrogation of some drug pushers by the local police suggests that in almost all the cases their girl companions were not aware of the presence of contraband in the vehicle concerned.

Once these girls are arrested, they remained in jail having no money to hire counsel for themselves. An NGO, the Voice of Prisoners, has been dealing with a majority of these cases. "There is an alarming increase in the involvement of minor girls in drug pushing," informed advocate Noor Alam, chairman of the NGO.

In a case, two girls Faizan, 15, and Muskan, 16, and a minor boy Naveed, 17, were arrested on Oct 22, 2003, while they were travelling in a car with two other persons. Gulbahar police claimed to seize 290kg of charas with some arms and ammunition from the vehicle.

Faizan and Naveed, who are stated to be real sister and brother, claimed that their parents and a brother were in Haripur prison for drug pushing.Naveed said that when they had visited the prison, their parents told them to accompany two persons named Sardar and Abdullah in their car. They were not aware of the presence of charas in the car, he said.

According to the other minor girl, Muskan, she belonged to Pabbi town and was engaged to a person who had been in a prison of Punjab. During initial interrogation, she stated that her fiance used to write her letters. Her brothers, Muskan claimed, were married and did not take care of her. Her fiance had asked her to meet him and the accused, Sardar, had offered his car to take her to the prison, she said.

The bail applications of these three juvenile offenders were turned down by the court concerned. Now a fresh application has been filed for Muskan on the grounds that she is a juvenile offender and as the trial could not be concluded within four months of her arrest, therefore she is entitled to bail.

In another case, two minor sisters Naseema, 13, and Rubina, 14, were arrested on Oct 13, 2003, while travelling in a car carrying 30kg charas, whereas the driver managed to flee. The sisters claimed to be fatherless and said their mother had asked them to accompany driver Fida. If police had not arrested them, the driver would have paid them Rs2,000 for the trip, the minor girls were quoted as saying.

Another girl Lubna, 14, was asked by her neighbour Ms Shamim to accompany her on a journey. The woman was on good terms with the family of Lubna and they did not suspect her of being involved in drug pushing. The women and girl were arrested with three men of the gang on Oct 4, 2003, while travelling in a vehicle. Police claimed to seize 300kg charas from the vehicle.