by Charlotte McDonald-Gibson Charlotte Mcdonald-gibson –

June 3, 2009

MINGORA, Pakistan (AFP) –

Grenades, rifles, knives and an ornate sword of the kind allegedly used by the Taliban to behead foes lay on a table in a Pakistan military base, an apparent victor's bounty seized by the army.

Among the rocket launchers, Osama Bin Laden T-shirt and bombs hidden in pressure cookers are more mundane signs of life -- passports, driving licences and a child's biology book filled with careful handwritten notes.

Some signature black turbans of the Islamist movement sit next to a bottle of Russian vodka, which an official said was seized from the home of a senior militant in the military's six-week push to crush the rebels.

Pakistan's security forces are claiming massive gains in cities and towns in their bid to root out Taliban insurgents in three northwest districts.

But in the Swat valley, officials say they face a massive challenge to rebuild the shattered region after two years of Taliban insurgency to enforce sharia law and military offensives, as well as prevent the militants' return.

"Unimaginable damage has been done," said Fazal Karim Khattak, the top administration official for Malakand, a region which includes Swat and where three million people were put under sharia law in a failed peace bid this year.

"We have to re-establish the education system, the health system... we request the international community comes forward to assist the rehabilitation of Swat."

"Billions and billions" of Pakistani rupees (tens of millions of dollars) of damage has been done, he added.

Pakistan launched its offensive in Lower Dir on April 26, Buner on April 28, and Swat on May 8, after the militants flouted the February peace deal and thrust within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of the capital Islamabad.

Last weekend, the military said it captured Swat's business and administrative hub Mingora, now a ghost town where shops are shuttered and the only people on the streets are armed soldiers guarding a few charred buildings.

Of the population of 300,000, only 10 percent remain, the rest joining an estimated 2.4 million people who have fled the current military push.

Most of Mingora is free from serious battle damage. Only the notorious square where the Taliban allegedly dumped their victims' bodies shows the scars of serious fighting, with windows smashed and crumbled masonry.

"Taliban are on the run, their command control infrastructure is in disarray. Their lower and mid-tier have been eliminated, the foot soldiers are melting away," said Major General Sajjad Ghani, commander of northern Swat.

Nobody is under any illusions, however, that the battle is over.

Military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas says that although towns and cities should be clear of Taliban fighters within days, major combat operations in a fierce guerrilla war could last two more months.

Abbas said soldiers will likely stay on the ground for at least a year to oversee the building of civilian administration and local security forces.

"It is a process. You do not see success as one event in a counter-insurgency operation," he told AFP on a ridge overlooking Mingora.

"When the military secure and clear the area, then it will require the civilian agencies, the civilian administration to fall back."

Analysts say that to win the war against Taliban guerrillas, the army must avoid collateral damage and swiftly rebuild lives shattered by the offensive, or risk spawning more sympathisers for the extremist group.

Many of the Taliban foot soldiers are disenfranchised young men, drawn to the movement by high unemployment and hardship, seeing little scope for advancement in a country dominated by a wealthy elite.

Major General Ijaz Awan, in charge of the army's Mingora campaign, says the long-term plan is to bring back elected representatives, village elders and police, then build up local militias to help keep the peace.

One of the main challenges will be ensuring that fighters who have melted into the mountains do not simply resurface when the offensive is over, reviving their campaign to enforce sharia law, kidnapping and killing with impunity.

The top Taliban leaders remain elusive, with the military operation now moving into the rugged Swat mountains to try and flush them out.

Malakand commissioner Khattak says he has faith that the local community will work with security forces providing intelligence on the identities of militants. Without that, he says, the task is immense.

"If a person throws away his gun and shaves off his beard, how will we know he is a Taliban?" he asks, as he rides through Mingora, the smell of cordite still stinging the air.