PESHAWAR, July 31: NWFP's Inspector-General of Prisons has requested the secretary, security (Fata), to pay attention to the plight of 49 juvenile offenders held in different prisons under the Frontier Crimes Regulations, 1901.

Officials quoted the IG, Prisons, Azam Khan, as saying in a letter to the secretary security, Governor Secretariat (Fata), Brig (retd) Mahmood Shah, on Thursday that some of them were as young as two to seven years of age.

He said that most of these offenders were arrested under sections 40 and 11 of the antiquated FCR, adding that a majority of these children belonged to the Frontier Region of Lakki Marwat.

Mr Khan said that by virtue of the act, they, as a state, were bequeathing these youngsters to a future life of crime by association.

The letter stated: "In this 21st century, when we talk of good governance, etc. and as Fata reforms are a long-term project, it would be a humane and just gesture of the honourable NWFP governor to issue an executive order to all political authorities to release these juvenile detenus immediately."

He requested that the political authorities should also be directed not to arrest youngsters and women under the preventive sections of the FCR in future. "This would be one way to win (over) the hearts and minds of the tribal people," the letter said.

The detention of children under the FCR has been drawing criticism from different human rights organisations.

In June, the Geneva-based World Organisation Against Torture, also known as OMCT, had sent a letter to President Pervez Musharraf and requested that the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000, should be extended to Fata and Pata to check such detentions.

The organisation had mentioned the case of detention of 24 children and women under the FCR in the Haripur prison. The said detenus were believed to be close relatives of Arsal Khan, who was declared to be a "notorious proclaimed offender" of Lakki Marwat.

They were arrested under the FCR's 'collective responsibility' clause.

The Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child has also launched a campaign against detention of juvenile prisoners under the FCR and had sent letters to the president and governor, requesting that relevant laws should be extended to Fata and Pata.