Protesters holding a sit-in at the Rabea al-Adaweya Mosque in support of deposed President Mohamed Morsi issued a letter to the local residents, promising to address complaints regarding blockades in the area, lack of cleanliness and noise late at night, reported the state-run news site Al-Ahram Gate on Thursday.

The National Alliance to Support Legitimacy — a recently founded Islamist group that is one of the main organizers of the sit-in — said that backyards and side streets in the area would be cleared of protesters, and a cleaning campaign would be undertaken immediately. The statement also promised that no fireworks would be shot off after midnight, and laser beams would be banned from the sit-in. The group also offered to lower the volume of the speakers erected on the sit-in’s stage after midnight.

However, despite this conciliatory letter, Morsi’s supporters vowed to remain in their sit-in until the deposed president is reinstated.

The statement came in response to a letter by the residents of Rabea al-Adaweya issued last week, where they called upon the authorities to rescue their neighborhood. The residents complained there was a severe lack of consumer goods due to the sit-in’s monopoly on all available food commodities. The residents also stated that it has been increasingly difficult to go to work as all roads were blocked and pavement had been ripped up.  The letter also claimed that residents were often panicked, as they regularly see protesters carrying weapons.

Residents had planned to rally in Nasr City today to demand the end of the sit-in.

Reports of violence from the sit-in have appeared in media and were circulated on online social media in recent days.

Five protesters from the sit-in were arrested and sent to East Cairo Prosecution, facing charges of holding a man hostage, torturing him and cutting off his fingers, the privately-owned Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper stated on Thursday. The suspects were accused of attempted murder, kidnapping and the possession of a weapon without a license.

The suspects denied the charges. They claimed they had attempted to rescue an individual who was being held hostage by members of the sit-in who accused him of being a thief. The suspects claimed they put the individual in an ambulance after other protesters attacked him.