MUZAFFARABAD, Dec 14: The AJK authorities have released four detained workers of the outlawed Jamaatud Dawa and have also withdrawn police guards from the residence of the group’s regional head.

Deputy Commissioner of Muzaffarabad Chaudhry Imtiaz told Dawn on Sunday that police guards had been removed from the residence of Maulana Abdul Aziz Alvi but he had been asked not to leave the area without informing the administration.

Maulana Alvi, who heads the AJK chapter of Dawa was put under house arrest in his Karyan village, some 19 kilometres north of here, on Thursday night.

“He had been placed under house arrest for security reasons. He is still under surveillance and cannot leave the station without prior intimation to the authorities concerned,” he said.

Similarly, the DC said, four people taken into custody from a mechanical workshop run by Dawa in Muzaffarabad had also been released because they were merely mechanics.In response to a question, he said there was no instructions from the federal government to detain the regional or second-line leadership of the banned organisation.

They were concerned about the ‘top brass’ and not the regional leadership, he said.