(26 Feb 2008)
Mountains in Shangla Pass area
1. Wide aerial from helicopter of mountains
2. Helicopter crewman looking out from helicopter door
Pajia
3. Pan from helicopter on ground to wide of Swat Valley
4. Soldier beside bunker looking out at valley floor
5. Mid of soldier
Uchrai Sar
6. Soldier walking in front of forest
7. Wide of soldier looking out at mountains in Piochar valley
Saidu Sharif
8. Wide of Pakistan Army briefing of journalists
9. Close-up of map on wall reading: "Secret: Op Rah-e-Haq"
10. Close-up of picture seen on projector screen which army says is of militant leader and cleric Maulana Fazlullah
11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Major General Nasser Janjua, Commander of military operations in Swat Valley:
"As far as operationally things are concerned we are already over with it. But we have to still take care of the remnants of all that and the leadership. So timelines are going to be accordingly because it is very intriguing."
12. Pan of journalists filming whilst on a tour of Swat arranged by the Pakistani military
13. Various of journalists filming light weaponry allegedly captured from militants displayed on tables
14. SOUNDBITE: (English) Major General Athar Abbas, Pakistan Army Spokesman:
"Ninety percent of the area was cleared and there are pockets of resistance and hopefully they'll be soon cleared."
(Q: But the suicide bombings haven't ended�these militants are still out there.)
"You can never rule out the possibility of militants sneaking in and carrying out such kind of acts."
Uchrai Sar
15. Villagers behind soldiers
Shangla Top
16. Various of soldiers beside bunker in snow, mountains behind
STORYLINE:
The militants who grabbed control of Pakistan's Swat Valley last autumn have fled or melted away into the villages they came from.
Now, as spring thaws the snow where troops have dug in through winter, the army says it has retaken a region that had slipped alarmingly from state control.
But bombings persist and Mullah Fazlullah, the hardline cleric behind the Taliban-style uprising, remains at large.
He made his name by broadcasting his harsh brand of Islam from his own pirate FM radio station and used his thousands of armed followers to scare off the local police.
In November the military launched one of the biggest military operations since Pakistan threw its support behind the US-led "war against terrorism" six years ago.
On Monday the military ferried journalists by helicopter to three mountaintop positions to show the territory its more than ten-thousand-strong force has conquered.
"Ninety percent of the area was cleared and there are pockets of resistance and hopefully they'll be soon cleared," army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said.
Fazlullah, the leader of a banned extremist group which sent reinforcements for the Taliban when US forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001, won a large local following by pressing for the introduction of Islamic law in a poorly policed region.
He took up arms in July, calling for holy war against the government.
With about six-thousand fighters, he seized a string of towns, scattering outgunned police and erected "Taliban station" signboards outside former police stations.
The militant takeover was a shocking reflection of how the government of Pakisani President Pervez Musharraf had lost control of tracts of the conservative northwest.
Swat, formerly known as a tourist retreat and dubbed the 'Switzerland of Asia' for its glorious Alpine scenery, became a no-go zone.
He claimed some shaved their beards and were nabbed as they tried to escape.
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