LONDON - Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that the Taliban are ‘on the run’ in the country, as the government has launched a series of military operations against them and other militant organisations.

“For the first time they are on the run. We know that because we pick up on their chatter,” Qureshi said.

In an interview to a leading British daily, Qureshi claimed that 95 percent of areas in Swat and Malakand Divisions, have been cleared by the security forces and the Taliban forced to retreat.

Referring to a survey which showed that 80 percent of Pakistanis considered the Taliban as a potent threat to the country, Qureshi told The Guardian that pubic opinion in Pakistan has turned against extremists over the past few months.

“Today, public opinion has converted to such an extent that the local tribes have set up lashkars (militias) to support army operations,” The Daily Times quoted Qureshi, as saying.

Qureshi said that government has the popular backing of the people, due to which it has gained success against the Taliban and other extremists in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), while many such attempts against the extremists had failed earlier during the regime of General Pervez Musharraf.

He said that the Swat flogging video, which showed a teenage girl being whipped publicly by the Taliban, played a pivotal role in changing public opinion regarding the Taliban.

“The video put people into shock,” Qureshi said. (ANI)