( CNN ) -- The 54 men and 14 boys rescued after being found chained this week at an Islamic religious school in Pakistan have been reunited with their families or placed in shelters , authorities said . The group was discovered in an underground room with heavy chains linking them together . The school , Al-Arabiya Aloom Jamia Masjid Zikirya , which also was a drug rehab clinic , is in Sohrab Goth , a suburb of Gadap in Karachi . All 14 boys were returned to their families , senior police official Ahsanullah Marwat told CNN . Of the adults , 47 had been released to their families , and seven were handed over to a shelter for the homeless , he said . Three people who worked at the facility were arrested , but the four men who ran the place were still at large , Marwat said . Officials said the facility was part madrassa and part drug-rehab facility , and the captives were chained at night apparently to prevent their escape . `` The operation was successful , and we plan on continuing our work to ensure that places like this are shut down , '' Marwat said . Many of the captives told police their families sent them there because they were recovering drug addicts . During the day , they worked and did religious studies . But the future of the rescued children was unclear . One woman told a local television station that she was willing to pay the police to keep her troublesome child . She said she would rather have the facility remain open , regardless of how it treated the children . Many others , however , said they were in shock and disbelief over the allegations . One man complained he was deep in debt after paying the school a large amount of money to board his son .
Captive boys and men were rescued from an Islamic religious center in Pakistan . They were reunited with their families this week . The facility was a school and a medical facility . Authorities say they 're searching for the boys ; they were arrested at the facility .