Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan said its army has surrounded pro-Taliban militants and cut off routes that would allow them to escape in large numbers from South Waziristan as the number of refugees fleeing the conflict there climbed.

The main highways into the tribal region bordering Afghanistan are “under constant check,” Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said at a news conference in Islamabad yesterday, the official Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

Militants staging suicide bombings and attacks in response to the South Waziristan offensive are “targeting the civilian population out of desperation,” Kaira said.

More than 300 people have been killed in terrorist attacks in Pakistan in the past month, including 35 in Rawalpindi yesterday when a suicide bomber exploded a device as people queued outside a bank. The army operation is its largest against militant groups operating in South Waziristan.

Soldiers cleared and secured the town of Kunniguram yesterday, Kaira said at the news conference with Major General Athar Abbas, the military spokesman. Army units two days ago entered Sararogha, the site of a terrorist base, after sealing off the town on three sides.

Indian-made arms and literature were found at sites in South Waziristan, Abbas said yesterday, according to APP. Kaira, asked whether Pakistan will raise the issue with India, said the government in Islamabad doesn’t believe in allegation for the sake of allegation and will take up the matter with India once it has “concrete evidence.”

Peace Talks

A five-year process aimed at improving relations between India and Pakistan stalled a year ago when India accused a Pakistan-based group of organizing attacks in the city of Mumbai that killed 166 people.

The UN yesterday said it is reducing the number of international workers in northwestern Pakistan because of the violence in the region, leaving “only those vital for emergency humanitarian relief or security operations.”

The workers in North West Frontier Province, where Swat is located, and in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, that include South Waziristan, will be relocated, UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said in New York.

“Security measures will be enhanced for staff that will continue their work in those areas,” she said.

About “300,000 people have arrived in the Tank and Dera Ismail Khan area, while around 25,000 more are expected to arrive in the next few weeks,” Khalid Fayaz Khan, director of the Fida Welfare Organization, a charity working with those displaced from South Waziristan, said today in a telephone interview.

Afghan Killings

Taliban gunmen in neighboring Afghanistan killed five UN employees Oct. 28 in an attack on a guesthouse in the capital, Kabul. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, visiting the city yesterday, said the UN’s work in the country will continue.

The attack in Rawalpindi yesterday was caused by a suicide bomber who drove his motorcycle into the car park at the National Bank of Pakistan, the government said. In a later attack in the city of Lahore, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a police checkpoint, injuring 16 people, eight of them police officers, APP said.

One policeman died in the attack late yesterday carried out by two bombers, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported, without saying where it obtained the information.

Pakistan’s government yesterday offered cash rewards of $5 million for the capture of Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud and 18 of his fighters. The bounty was offered in advertisements placed on the front pages of The News and The Jang newspapers.

Swat Offensive

Mehsud, leader of the Tehreek-e-Taliban group that Pakistan blames for 80 percent of terrorist attacks on its soil, commanded an individual reward of 50 million rupees ($600,000).

The authorities in May offered cash for information leading to the capture of 21 Taliban fighters in the northwestern Swat Valley. The army said it cleared militants from Swat after a 10- week operation that ended in July. The Swat offensive resulted in an exodus of more than 2 million refugees, most of whom have returned to towns and villages in the region.

To contact the reporters on this story: Farhan Sharif in Karachi at fsharif2@bloomberg.net; Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 3, 2009 04:26 EST