PESHAWAR, Sept 13: A batch of 364 prisoners, set free from Afghanistan's Pul-i-Charkhi jail on Sunday, were sent to the central jail here on Sunday night.

Talking to Dawn on Monday, NWFP Home Secretary Abdul Karim Kasuria said that soon after their arrival at the Torkham checkpoint, the prisoners were taken to the Peshawar Central Jail for a 'debriefing session'.

Later they would be sent to their provinces for further investigation, the home secretary said. According to a breakdown provided by the jail authorities, 181 prisoners belonged to Punjab, 78 to Sindh, 90 to the NWFP, four to Northern Areas, seven to Azad Kashmir, three to Balochistan and one came from Islamabad.

A team of investigators would interrogate the prisoners in the central jail, according to authorities. They said that most of the prisoners had already been declared 'white' by the Afghan authorities.

Officials said that over 100 Pakistani prisoners were still languishing in a Kabul jail. So far, the Afghan government has released more than 1,500 prisoners. An official said that Pakistan had yet to release 250 Afghan prisoners who had been arrested for their involvement in petty criminal cases.

Former prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had ordered the release of the Afghan prisoners during a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Islamabad last month.