PESHAWAR, April 25: A batch of 30 Pakistani prisoners, set free by the Afghan interim government as a goodwill gesture, was flown in here in a special flight from Kabul on Thursday.

Immediately after their arrival by a C-130 aircraft, they were shifted to the Central Jail, Peshawar, for illegally crossing over to Afghanistan to side with Taliban in the war against the coalition forces. Majority of them are old men.

A senior official told this scribe at the PAF base that they had been shifted to the prison only for the purpose of interrogation.

“The government will free them soon,” the official said.

The released persons are, Abdul Fareed, Mingora; Faqir Mohammad, Dir; Said Baachaa, Dir; Mohammad Amir, Faisalabad; Mohammad Jamil, Azad Kashmir; Sarwar Shah, Gujranwala; Rahim Bakhsh, Bahawalpur; Zareen, Swat; Asfendyar Khan, Mata (Swat); Fateh Gul, Hazrat Yousaf, Dir; Khan Gul, Sultan Mahmood, Zainul Abideen, Swat; Inayetullah, Nameet Khan, Madad Khan, Mir Ahmad Jan, Gul Ber Said, Nadir Khan, Dir; Abdur Rahim, Bakhat Jamal, Mian Gul, Swat; Fazl Rahim, Gul Faraz, Burhanuddin, Hanif Mohammad, Dir; and Faiz Mohammad, Chakdara.