PESHAWAR, Dec 19: An elderly woman imprisoned under the Frontier Crimes Regulation along with nine of her relatives, including a one-and-a-half year old girl, has urged human rights organizations and the judiciary to take notice of their plight.

The woman and other detainees are relatives of Saeedullah Khan of Lakki Marwat and are imprisoned in the Dera Ismail Khan central prison. They were arrested on May 2 and sentenced to three years imprisonment each under Section 40 of the FCR.

Gul Sahiba is 55 years old. Others include the woman's daughter-in-law, Dur Jana (Aged 30); two daughters, Gul Khaira (14) and Gul Zarma Jana (10); four sons, Eid Badshah (12), Ghulam Hussain (9), Shah Hussain (7) and Mohammad Hussain (4); and, two grand daughters, Khana Dura (three and a half years) and Nama Jan (one and a half years).

The woman has sent appeals to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and the district and sessions judges of Islamabad, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Peshawar. The family belongs to the Bhittani tribe and are residents of the Harama Thala area in Serai Gambela, Lakki Marwat.

The woman said that they had been arrested after the SHOs of Lakki Marwat and Bannu police stations raided their house. The SHOs, she said, were accompanied by the assistant political agent of the Lakki Frontier Region. She said that they were sent to prison on May 4 under the FCR.

Gul Sahiba said that the administration had arrested them on the pretext of their being related to a notorious outlaw, Arsal Khan, while, in fact, their family had an old enmity with the outlaw. "We had left our ancestral residence and shifted to the Harama Thala area because of the enmity with the man," she added.

The woman said that no FIR had been registered against her or her school-going children in any police station. Hameedullah Khan, husband of Ms Dur Jana, is currently serving with the Makran Scouts in Turbat, Balochistan.

The detainees claimed that the authorities had demolished their house and took away all their valuables, including jewellery. The woman called for immediate release of the children.

She said that their detention was illegal because they had been arrested from a settled area. Interestingly, 24 women and children belonging to the family of Arsal Khan had also been imprisoned under Section 40 of the FCR in Haripur central prison.

About 15 of the children are below the age of 10. The issue of their detention had been raised in the Senate, but the government had been denying their imprisonment. In a function held to mark the World Human Rights Day on Dec 10, the NWFP Governor had denied detaining juveniles and women under the FCR.

"The government is indifferent towards the imprisonment of children and women under the FCR despite their detention being on record of the Prison Department," said Arshad Mahmood, deputy national coordinator of an NGO, Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child. He said that they had sent appeals to the president, prime minister and governor, but no action had so far been taken.