In response to criticism of a photo of children in jail that recently went viral on social media, Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon said on Friday that 129 Afghan women who had entered the country illegally and had given birth to 178 children were being held in jail in the province, but insisted that the children were not being arrested.

The picture of smiling children in jail that went viral yesterday on social media and incited outrage from activists and politicians is what sparked the media discussion.

The PPP leader clarified, speaking at a press conference in Karachi, that the 178 children “staying with their mothers in the jails are not under arrest.”

According to the law, young children may be permitted to visit their mother in jail if they are under the age of seven, he said.

Memon reaffirmed. “Where will the children go when their father is also in jail?”

The viral image, according to Memon, was not taken in a jail in Sindh.

Let me reiterate that the image is not from a jail in Sindh, he said. “I’ll say it again: Sindh has no jail where this photo was taken.”

He insisted that the kids were treated like “inmates, not as prisoners.”

“No kid is behind bars as a result of the government. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) takes them to court whenever they are detained.

Memon claimed that the children’s mothers were permitted to keep them in custody by the courts.

The government “takes action and deals with them according to the law if a person lives illegally in any country,” Memon said, adding that illegal immigrants from Nigeria and Bangladesh were also imprisoned throughout the country.

He said out of the 129 arrested females, 75 were under-trial prisoners whereas 54 were convicted for two months.

“Their conviction will end in January,” Memon said. “Nobody has been sentenced to jail for more than two months.”

The minister added that the 54 females will be deported from the country after their release, along with their children, following the directives of the federal government.

During the press conference, the minister also showed a video of a women’s jail in Karachi where children can be seen reading books and playing at what looked like a school located inside the prison.