"We have lodged Maulana Sufi Muhammad and his 30 companions in the prison, after they were sentenced to three-year jail term each by Political Agent at Kurram Agency under section 40 of the Frontier Crimes Regulations," confirmed superintendent Dera Ismail Khan Jail.
Maulana Sufi Muhammad, his son Ziauddin and 29 other activists of TNSM were arrested at Shorki area of Kurram Agency by Political Authorities on November 19 on entry into Pakistan from Afghanistan along with heavy weapons, which they refused to surrender while coming home.
Earlier, the Maulana and his armed followers had stranded on the Pak-Afghan border on Afghanistan territory for two days to get clearance from the Pakistani officials to cross into the country. But the authorities were reluctant to allow him entry along with prohibited bore weapons and ammunition including rocket launchers and heavy machineguns.
The Maulana crossed into Afghanistan early this month at the head of an estimated 10,000 armed Lashkar of Pushtun tribesmen to wage jihad with his brothers-in-faith, the Taliban soldiers against the U.S. and its allied forces.
The stubborn Maulana went ahead with his plans defying Taliban requests not to send his people for Jihad, as according to the Taliban officials, the time was not ripe for asking non-Afghans to rush to the help of students' militia.
Most of Maulana's followers returned from Afghanistan without firing a single shot at the enemy while a number of them were reported to have either been killed or are arrested by the Northern Alliance forces in Mazar-e-Sharif and other parts of northern Afghanistan.
A number of them are believed to have been stranded in Kunduz, where Taliban fighters are still reluctant to lay down arms in reward for a safe passage offered by Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum's forces. More than 2000 Pushtun tribesmen, part of Sufi Muhammad's Jihadi Caravan, are believed to be still missing.
About the presence of Pakistani nationals stranded in Kunduz, Taliban Commander for Northern Afghanistan, Ubaidullah Akhund said, this was not true and there are hardly 250 Pakistani nationals fighting in Kunduz along with Taliban, but they are not Sufi Muhammad's men.
"They are mujahideen and mainly from Kashmir," he disclosed through a wireless interview from the besieged Kunduz province.
"We have also received a fax message from the administration of Malakand division along with a long list of other sections to frame charges of instigating public, killings of people and personnel of law enforcement agencies, road blockades and creating disturbances in Malakand since 1994," said an official of D. I. Khan jail.
It is to be noted that dozens of people including personnel of the law enforcement agencies were killed, roads were blocked, government building were occupied, officials were held hostage and control of Saidu Sharif airport was taken over to demand for the enforcement of Islamic Sharia as the supreme law of Malakand division.
Conviction under the FCR laws, a legacy of the British rule over India, experts say, cannot be challenged in the superior courts due to the fact that writ of the Supreme Court of Pakistan or that of the High Court could not be extended to the tribal areas of Pakistan.
The Political Agents, who rule the tribal areas with iron hands since the British time, enjoy unchallenged powers and are entitled to award sentences ranging from months to life imprisonment.
Legal experts say that the government was better off to file more cases under treason and other charges against Sufi Muhammad for giving tough time to the authorities in the past in the guise of religion.
