[Quqnoos] Pakistani Prime Minister said Saturday the country's army had driven the Taliban out of South Waziristan.Later, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the military operations in the area were not over.
About 30,000 troops poured into South Waziristan, a Taliban stronghold, in October to clear the tribal district of Taliban strongholds, prompting a surge in bomb blasts and attacks in retaliation.
"The operation has finished in South Waziristan. Now there is a discussion of taking it to Orakzai Agency," Gilani told reporters in a visit to Lahore.
Later, in the southern port city of Karachi, Gilani took a more cautious stance.
"If somebody gathered an impression that the military operation would be concluded, it could have been in a different context," the Associated Press of Pakistan quoted him as saying.
"This operation has continued with great success and the strongholds of militants have been captured and a large quantity of weapons and ammunition has been recovered.
"I cannot give the time-frame when we will conclude military operation in South Waziristan, but I can at least provide this information that success rate is very high in this area," he said.
He said that militants would be pursued if they took refuge in other places such as Orakzai, to which many are thought to have fled.
"We will take military action wherever we get information about the presence of militants," he said.
Pakistani armed forces this year launched multiple operations across the northwestern tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, the stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban and a haven for Al-Qaeda fighters and other militants.
More than 2,680 people have been killed in militant attacks in Pakistan since July 2007.