PESHAWAR, Sept 18: Two brothers, said to be juveniles, are languishing in the Kohat district prison without any trial under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR). One of the boys has missed admission to intermediate classes as on the day of the admission, he was in the prison and could not turn up before the admission committee.

The boys have been in the prison for more than three months.

Their counsel Jamrooz Khan Afridi told Dawn that although the jurisdiction of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000 had been extended to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas last year, the tribal administration of Kohat Frontier Region (FR) had been violating it.

The brothers, Ashfaq and Irshad, sons of late Munir Khan, were arrested from their native Dara Adamkehl in June on the orders of the assistant political agent of the Kohat FR under section 21 of the FCR.

Ashfaq is a student of a Kohat college and aged about 18 whereas Irshad is 16 and has passed his secondary school examination before his arrest.

Family members of the two prisoners said that few months ago, somebody had lifted a vehicle belonging to an army officer in Punjab.

The officer lodged a complaint with the tribal administration in that regard. However, nobody was nominated accused in the case.

It is learnt that the administration suspected that the car might have been be lifted by some members of the Zarghunkhel tribe.

The two brothers belong to the tribe and the authorities arrested them to pressurize the tribe to name and surrender the persons involved in the crime, a cousin of the two prisoners said.

Later, the army official informed the authorities that his car had been recovered and the arrested boys were innocent. However, the administration is now reluctant to release them, according to sources.