PESHAWAR, Oct 30: A Christian woman of Peshawar has been languishing with her baby at a Darul Aman in Rawalpindi, as she has no surety to produce for her release.

The woman, Kateherin, arrested in connection with a narcotics case was sent to the Darul Aman on July 11, 2001, after her bail application was accepted by the Rawalpindi bench of the high court.

As she was anaemic and was also having a suckling baby with her, therefore the high court ordered that she should be shifted to the Darul Aman from Adiala jail and should remain there unless she produced a single local surety of Rs25,000.

Being poor and having no sympathisers in Rawalpindi, she has been in the Darul Aman for the last more than a year as she has no surety to produce.

During her stay in the prison her five-year old daughter also died there as she was ill and there was no proper medical facilities available inside. The woman, who is about 30, belongs to Bannu district of NWFP.

Few years back she got married to Shahzad Masih, an inhabitant of Peshawar, and started residing there. Later on, her husband died. She was going to Rawalpindi on July 19, 2000, when she was arrested from Pir Wadhai bus stand by the police.

The police claimed that they had recovered 6.5 kilograms of charas from her luggage. A case was registered against her under section 9 of the Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 1997, carrying punishment of death or life term.

Advocate Raja Zaheeruddin Babar had appeared before the high court for the accused, arguing that she got nothing to do with the narcotics recovered by the police and in fact she was implicated in the case. Keeping in view the fact that she was a woman and was also having a child with her, the high court accepted her bail petition on the condition of furnishing a surety bond of Rs25,000.

The general secretary, Voice of Prisoners, Pastor S.Khalid, who is looking after her case, told Dawn that the woman was not having good health and a 16-month-old child is also with her at the Darul Aman.