PESHAWAR, Dec 20: NWFP home department released 12 prisoners from Peshawar Central Jail on Saturday who were recently handed over to the local authorities after being set free by Kabul last month.

Those released from jail included 11 belonging to the NWFP and one to Gilgit. They were set free after submitting surety bonds and fulfilling other procedural requirements.

An official said that 14 more prisoners of the total 50 released recently by Kabul would be handed over to the Sindh police on Monday as the Joint Interrogation Team (JIT), which interrogated them after their release from Kabul, declared them “white”.

Those who would be handed over to Sindh police on Monday belong to different parts of Sindh, said the official.

The Afghan government had released 50 Pakistani prisoners from Shaberghan prison last month as a goodwill gesture towards Islamabad on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr.

More than 500 Pakistani Taliban prisoners who were arrested in northern Afghanistan by the forces of Northern Alliance after the fall of the Taliban government are still languishing in various Afghan jails.