Pakistan mounted a hunt for top Taleban commanders as it vowed to wrap up a military operation in the Swat Valley within two to three days. The announcement comes after the capture of the main city in the region on Saturday.

The Government announced rewards worth hundreds of thousands of pounds for the capture of Mullah Fazalullah, the Taleban leader in Swat, and more than a dozen of his commanders, who are accused of killing civilians and security personnel. Military authorities suspect that they might have slipped into the lawless tribal regions near the Afghan border after troops cleared most of the Swat Valley in the past four weeks.

There is also a fear that a large number of Taleban fighters might have disappeared along with more than two million people who have fled the fighting in Swat. A senior security official told The Times that while second and third-tier Taleban commanders in the valley had either been killed or captured there was still no trace of the top leaders.

The Government has therefore increased the bounty for Mullah Fazalullah to 50 million rupees (£380,000). Syed Athar Ali, the Defence Secretary and a retired lieutenant-general, told a meeting of defence ministers in Singapore yesterday that the militants were limited to 2 to 3 per cent of Swat and that the operation would end within days.

“Only 5 to 10 per cent of the job is remaining and hopefully within the next two to three days these pockets of resistance will be cleared,” he said.

He was speaking the day after the military claimed to have seized control of Mingora, the main business hub of the former holiday haven famous for its snow-capped mountains and ski resort.

Analysts said that it was too early to claim a victory as there was always a danger of militants regrouping unless the top leadership was eliminated.

“Those commanders need to be captured or killed soon or else they may make the rehabilitation and reconstruction phase very difficult,” said Dawn, the most influential English language newspaper in Pakistan.

Major-General Athar Abbas, the chief military spokesman, said that there were a few small pockets of resistance on the outskirts of Mingora that still needed to be cleared before people could start returning home.

Only about 20,000 people were left in the city, which normally has a population of 370,000. Some of them came out of their homes during a brief break in a curfew to buy food and other essential goods, which have been in short supply.

Authorities said that they were distributing aid to those trapped in the city, and working to restore water and gas supplies. An emergency medical team had been flown to Mingora to reopen the town’s hospital and treat civilians wounded in the fighting, General Abbas said.

The military also claimed to have seized control of the Piochar Valley in northern Swat, which has been described as Mullah Fazalullah’s headquarters. A spokesman said that several arms dumps and training centres were destroyed in the action.

The month-long offensive has killed more than 90 soldiers and created more than two million refugees in what some officials and aid workers have called the worst humanitarian crisis in Pakistani history.

Government and UN officials said that it would be weeks before the refugees could start returning to their homes in areas devastated by the fighting.

Western officials have praised the Swat offensive but remain more concerned about the neighbouring tribal areas.

Times Recommends

• SAS veterans join new war on poachers
• Me real beauties: Cap’n Jack bans false breasts
• Saving Sahil