SRINAGAR: The J&K administration on Sunday released four more political functionaries, including a former MLA each of the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), after almost six months of detention since the Centre moved to revoke the erstwhile state's special status.

The release of PDP's Mohammad Yousuf along with Abdul Majid Larmi, Ghulam Nabi Bhat and Muhammad Shafi of NC has brought the number of political functionaries now detained at the MLA Hostel here to 17. They had all been shifted there from other detention centres at the start of winter. Yousuf is a former MLA from Shopian in south Kashmir while Larmi used to represent Home Shalibug constituency.

Last month, nine political functionaries had been released from detention at the MLA Hostel.

Until September, over three dozen former MLAs were among the political activists and office-bearers of various parties detained in J&K. They had all been picked up on the eve of the government tabling a bill in Parliament on August 5 to nullify Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution.

Three former CMs — Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah of NC and PDP's Mehbooba Mufti — remain in detention. Farooq has been detained in his private Gupkar Road house under the Public Safety Act while Omar, the vice-president of NC, is at the nearby Hari Niwas Palace. Mehbooba is currently in a government guesthouse on Srinagar 's Maulana Road, her third address since the night of August 4.

People's Conference president Sajad Gani Lone is another senior politician still in detention.

Official sources said more detainees would be freed over the next few weeks.

