The mere threat of encirclement, the army claims, frightened militants out of Mingora.
One school on the outskirts of Mingora, Swat's main city, was "like the Taj Mahal, very beautiful," he said.
They started their inhuman activities, they slaughtered people in the squares of Mingora and they killed so many innocent people.
Shah Rasool, the police chief in Swat, said that all roads leading out of Mingora had been barricaded and that more than 30 militant suspects had been detained.
The shooting of Malala Yousufzai on Tuesday in the town of Mingora in the volatile Swat Valley horrified Pakistanis across the religious, political and ethnic spectrum.
But that Tuesday's shooting could take place in the center of Mingora, the valley's largest town, offered evidence that the Taliban were creeping back.
Four years ago, in the main street of Mingora, the largest town in Pakistan's Swat Valley, I saw a man trying to make and sell kebabs.
Still, the government's position was unchanged, the official said; it was clinging to only a small corner of Mingora.
Witnesses said Friday that the insurgents remained in control of Mingora, the district capital, and many parts of the districts of Buner and Lower Dir.
He asserted "we have given the taliban the north of Swat, so why not give them the city of Mingora too".
