PESHAWAR, May 30: The North Waziristan agency's administration hassentenced 24 women and children of a family to three years imprisonment under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation.

The convicted women and children, stated to be relatives of an outlaw, Arsal Khan, are being kept at Haripur Central Prison. The ages of the children range from four to 15 years.

The women and children were convicted by the assistant political agent of Miramshah about a month ago, sources told Dawn. Their conviction is aimed at pressuring Arsal Khan, a kidnapper, to surrender. A two-week-long operation by the administration had failed as Arsal Khan could not be arrested.

The administration had claimed that it had smashed the gang involved in various cases of kidnapping for ransom and other crimes, but Arsal Khan and his close associates could not be arrested.

A Haripur prison official confirmed that the women and children, including the wife and son of Arsal Khan, were sent to jail by the North Waziristan administration.

The official said: "We have provided a separate section to the family it mostly includes children and they could not be housed with habitual criminals." An inmate of the prison's juvenile section said Waseel Khan, a nine-year-old son of Arsal Khan, and Siddique Khan, his 10-year-old nephew, were in the section.

An official at the APA's office said the official had the powers to convict the people under the collective responsibility clause of the FCR. He said four women and 20 children had been sentenced.

When contacted, APA Zaheerul Islam expressed ignorance about the issue and said: "I have recently been transferred here and my predecessor might have convicted them." The APA has been serving on the post for more than a year and he looked after the operation against the Arsal group in the tribal area, sources claimed.

Some inhabitants of Tajori area of Lakki Marwat district alleged that the 24 people were arrested in settled area in the jurisdiction of the Tajori police station and shifted to Miramshah so that the jurisdiction of ordinary courts could not be extended to their case.