By Sheree Sardar

MINGORA, Pakistan, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Pakistani forces have largely cleared Islamist militants from a northwestern valley after months of fighting but are still searching for their hardline cleric leader, army commanders said on Monday.

The Swat valley, about five hours drive on mountain roads from Islamabad, had been a popular tourist destination with a golf course, trout streams and the country's only ski resort.

But last year well-armed militants appeared and began to enforce their brand of hardline sharia law.

Their intrusion into the once-peaceful valley soon came to symbolise so-called Talibanisation, or the spread of militancy from remote enclaves on the Afghan border into populated areas.

Led by a young, charismatic cleric called Fazlullah, the militants, many believed to be veterans of Afghan fighting, attacked the police, closed girls schools and video shops, and tried to destroy Buddhist ruins.

The police disappeared when challenged and soon the militants held sway over a string of towns in the valley.

In November, the army responded, launching an offensive with thousands of troops which the commander in charge said on Monday had succeeded in clearing militants from most of the valley.

"As far as operationally things are concerned, we are already over with it but we have to still take care of the remnants ... and the leadership," the commander of the offensive, Major General Nasser Janjua, told reporters.

Janjua said 90 percent of the valley had been been cleared of militants with help of the local people, although militants still lurked in far-flung pockets he described as "red spots".

"We are going to operate there, we are going to continue to apprehend people through cordon and search operations," he said.

Voters in the Swat Valley rejected Islamist parties in legislative elections last week.

On Friday the militants responded, setting off a roadside bomb that killed 13 people, most from a wedding party, in the valley town of Matta.

"STILL HIDING"

Lieutenant-Colonel Nadir Hussain said he knows there are militants in the Uchrai Sar area, where he is in charge, but he is confident they cannot cause any more trouble.

"We cannot rule out the presence of miscreants in these areas, they are still hiding there. But we have been able to break their myth. Their resistance is very less now," he said.

"The presence of the army in the area will ensure that they do not upsurge or regroup again to challenge the writ of the government," he said.

Janjua said 36 soldiers and 230 militants had been killed in the operation.

He said the valley's people, while still afraid of the militants, had turned against them.

"Though they are not picking up courage enough to fight them, but at least they have started resenting the presence of militants," he said.

Former army chief, President Pervez Musharraf, has stressed the importance of keeping up the fight against militants but his alliance with the United States and its campaign against terrorism is deeply unpopular with many Pakistanis.

Musharraf's close links with the United States was one of the reasons voters rejected the main party that backs him in the Feb. 18 election.

The opposition parties that won the elections and are set to form a new government have also spoken of the need to tackle militancy but have stressed the importance of negotiations, as well as force.

With militants still dangerous in Swat, the valley could prove to be an early test of the new government's resolve. (Editing by Robert Birsel and Mary Gabriel)

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