11 October 2004	Monday	25 Shaban 1425

PESHAWAR, Oct 10: The detention of children and women under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) has come under criticism from different groups.

Those detained under the FCR include 21 members of a fugitive's family, convicted under section 40 of the FCR on May 5 and being kept in the Haripur Central Prison.

The deputy national coordinator of Sparc (Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Children), Arshad Mahmood, stated that the group had contacted many officials on this matter during the last four months, but the response was discouraging.

The 21 women and children of the fugitive's family were arrested after the wanted man had escaped arrest. The government, however, claimed that they were being kept in protective custody to shield them from, what the police claimed, the people of Lakki Marwat whom the fugitive had allegedly enraged.

"It is a shameful act to imprison women and children in the garb of providing them security. This is an indication of the total breakdown of the State apparatus," said Bushra Gohar, a former member of the National Commission on the Status of Women.