SULTANWAS, Pakistan — Crammed into rickety vans with electric fans and sacks of flour roped to the roof, the first of Pakistan's 2 million refugees have begun returning to their homes, after the army said it had expelled Taliban militants from some northern strongholds.

The civilians' return is unlikely to end Pakistan's refugee crisis. The military is preparing for a major offensive in a neighboring region, ensuring that other Pakistanis will be displaced.

The refugees have spent the past two months in crowded camps and squeezed into houses with relatives and friends south of the war zone and are eager to restart their lives. The government must now quickly restore electricity and water — and prevent the militants from coming back.

If the government fails, it could lose the goodwill it won among the public by confronting the Taliban during last spring's offensive. The military operation began after militants poured out of bases in the Swat Valley into the neighboring district of Buner and moved within 60 miles of the capital, Islamabad.

The army has now declared Swat and Buner cleared of most Taliban fighters. It plans to follow up on its success in those areas with an offensive against Taliban militants in South Waziristan, part of the lawless tribal region along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.

But those offensives have forced an estimated 2 million civilians from their homes, threatening a humanitarian crisis in a country which has long fallen short of providing basic services to its people.

The urgency of the situation is particularly clear in Sultanwas, a small town in Buner that was reduced to rubble during the fighting. F-16 fighter jets, military helicopters, tanks and artillery flattened houses, mosques and shops, strewn with charred children's books, torn sandals and busted suitcases.

With the Taliban driven from the area, about half the town's estimated 5,000 residents have returned — mainly men to scout out the situation to see if it's safe for their wives and children. About 100 tents have been set up in a wheat field to house them.

Some returnees were grumbling Thursday about what they perceive as government foot-dragging.

"If we are ignored and neglected, then no one will stand against militant extremism in the future," said Muhamed Shereen, who left his wife and nine children in a refugee camp. "In this war, we lost and gave everything, saw our village destroyed. So now the people of Sultanwas look to the government and the whole country and world to come forward and help us."

Help is something they desperately need.