TANK, March 30: With police poised to launch a de-weaponisation drive here, the kidnapped principal of a private school and his brother were set free on Friday. The administration relaxed the curfew from noon till 3pm. On Saturday, it will be relaxed from 8am till noon.

The principal of the Oxford High School, Fareed Mehsud, and his brother Humayun were handed over to a jirga led by Maulvi Niaz Qureshi, which had been negotiating with the militants in South Waziristan for their release.

They had been taken away by dozens of militants from their home on Tuesday.

Dera Ismail Khan range police chief Zulfiqar Ahmad Cheema asked the inhabitants of Tank to surrender their illegal weapons, saying that otherwise a de-weaponisation campaign would be launched soon.

In a press conference here, he did not give any deadline, but warned that “door-to-door search will be begun if the illicit weapons are not handed over.”

He said a security plan had been evolved for Tank district, under which checkpoints would be set up around the city and all the incoming and outgoing vehicles would be searched.

“We have arrested four people in connection with the Wednesday violence,” the deputy inspector-general of police said.