Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak today approved the withdrawal of army from troubled Swat valley and Malakand district starting next month, according to a media report.
Withdrawal of troops would begin from Buner and Shangla first, the Express Tribune reported quoting Khattak.
The report could not be independently confirmed.
Pakistan army troops had been ordered into the valley in 2009 by the then government after militants had attempted to take over.
After the successful completion of their operation and talks with the militants, it was decided that army personnel will be called off from the area.
"The army deployed in Swat and Malakand will start withdrawing next month," the report said, adding Khattak had signed the respective documents.
The government has struggled to eliminate militancy from the once peaceful valley.
Last year in October, militants managed to shoot teenage peace and education activist Malala Yousufzai and her two friends in Swat.
