Baghdad, Iraq ? Hundreds of newly freed Iraqi prisoners kissed the ground after being dropped at bus stations Wednesday as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched the largest such release since the U.S.-led invasion.

Sunni Arab political leaders welcomed the initiative, which was intended to promote reconciliation in this fractured nation. But some expressed fear the releases would be offset by more arrests. There have been accusations that Sunnis have suffered arbitrary detentions and even torture at the hands of the Shiite-led government.

“We want a real solution,” said Sunni legislator Mohammed al-Dayeni, calling for all detainees to be released. “We demand that random raids and arrests be stopped in all Iraqi provinces, and only in that way can we ensure a safe environment.”

The government has promised to release a total of 2,000 detainees whose cases have been reviewed, in batches of about 500. The first 594 were freed Wednesday from U.S.- and Iraqi-run prisons around the country, including Abu Ghraib.

Some detainees walk from a bus while others pray on the ground as 594 inmates are released from U.S. and Iraqi-run prisons around Iraq. The inmates were dropped off Wednesday at the main bus station in central Baghdad.

Al-Maliki has made security and reconciliation a priority of his new government. But he also has vowed to crack down on violence often blamed on the Sunni-led insurgency, and he said the release plan excludes loyalists of ousted leader Saddam Hussein, as well as “terrorists whose hands are stained with the blood of the Iraqi people.”

Sectarian tensions were high after Monday’s abductions of 50 people in downtown Baghdad by gunmen wearing police uniforms and Sunday’s shooting deaths of 21 Shiites north of the capital, including students pulled from their minivans.

Police said Wednesday that 15 of the kidnapped people had been released, some with signs of torture, but provided no details on their identities.