LARKANA: District and Sessions Judge Abdul Ghafoor Kalhoro on Monday offered free legal assistance to juvenile prisoners and told them that if they desired, they should approach him through the jail superintendent. He was talking to the children lodged in a portion of the special prison for women.

The Larkana district and sessions judge also distributed gifts among them during a programme organised by Prof Dr Shahida Shaikh, the headof gynaecology unit-H of Shaikh Zayed Hospital for Women, and her team.

He said a lawyer would officially be engaged to extend legal assistance to the inmates concerned.

Presently ninejuveniles are keptin the jail and most of them are facing cases of murder, narcotics smuggling and old family disputes.

The sessions judge urged the inmates to correct themselves if they had done wrong and landed there.

`You are the future of your families, he said. Appreciating the doctor`s group for its philanthropic role, he said that all the juveniles would also get medical assistance if needed and medicines would be provided to them.

He said that for religious education, a teacher would be deputed while a juvenile, who had volunteered his ser-vices, was tasked to impart education to his jail mates. Textbooks and stationary would be provided to them, said Prof Dr Shahida Shaikh in her speech.

The juveniles in a brief chat with this reporter said they were regularly produced in courts and some alleged their relatives for implicating them in false murder cases. One of them said his parents had sent him to jail to withdraw drug addiction.

Prof Dr Shahida Shaikh asked the prisoners not to feel themselves alone as all possible assistance as assure d by the district and sessions judge and her group would be provided to them.

The sessions judge said he visited central prison on a weekly basis and special prison for women to apprise himself about the conditions.