PESHAWAR, June 13: Investigation agencies have cleared all the 65 people, who were recently released from a prison in Afghanistan and deported to Pakistan, sources said on Friday.

An official of the Home and Tribal Affairs Department told Dawn the agencies had completed investigations and declared all the 65 prisoners “white.”

He said after the completion of preliminary investigations and debriefing process, the NWFP government had formally requested the Punjab and Sindh governments to shift the prisoners who belonged to these two provinces.

These prisoners were shifted from Kabul to central prison, Peshawar, on May 28, after being released from Sheberghan prison.

They had crossed into Afghanistan without legal documents to fight along with the Taliban against US troops.

The sources said out of 65 prisoners, 40 belonged to Punjab and 11 to Sindh, while the rest of them hailed from the NWFP, tribal areas and Azad Kashmir. The agencies found nothing against these prisoners, the sources said and added the government would soon release them after surety bonds were furnished by them.

The government officials said the Home and Tribal Affairs Department had also directed the district coordination officers (DCOs) in the NWFP to shift these prisoners from Peshawar central prison to their respective districts.

In a related development, the federal government has decided to release those Afghan nationals who had been arrested under the Foreigners Act, the Home Department officials said.