RIYADH, Nov 23: More than 100 Saudis are still under arrest in the kingdom on charges of terrorism. The Saudi authorities are interrogating them from among hundreds rounded up after the Sept 11 attacks in the United States for questioning about their alleged links with the Al Qaeda network.

“Security authorities have already questioned nearly 700 Saudis who came back from Afghanistan,” Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif said. “Those who are still under interrogation number more than 100,” he added.

The Saudi interior minister, however, denied reports that there were thousands of mujahideen who returned to the kingdom from Afghanistan. “The reports are exaggerated,” he said.

Prince Naif’s disclosure was the first official estimate of the number of detainees on terrorism charges in Saudi Arabia after the Sept 11 attacks.

Referring to Mohammed Al-Sahim, a Saudi who was arrested in Riyadh earlier this week after a shootout with security agencies, Prince Naif alleged that Sahim had links with terrorist groups.

The prince expressed a hoped that all Saudi prisoners held in the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would be released soon. He also confirmed that the Saudis arrested in Morocco on charges of terrorism had links with terrorist groups.