The army battled the militants after the Taliban reneged on a controversial peace deal with the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government and instead moved south from their Swat headquarters and occupied Buner, just 100 km from Islamabad.

The operations began in Lower Dir, the home district of Sufi Mohammad, who had brokered the peace deal and who is the father-in-law of Swat Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah.

They later spread to Buner and Swat - and to South Waziristan.

The military operations have displaced 3.8 million civilians from the three districts of NWFP. The displaced civilians have now begun to return home.