Residents of the Swat Valley's main town on Sunday rushed to mostly empty markets in search of food, a day after the military claimed to have retaken the city from the Taliban.
Long queues of cars formed on the road to Mingora, as a number of residents began to return to their city.
But for many of the three million people displaced by the fighting, a return could mean finding a crushed home or damaged businesses, as video footage and reporters' accounts from various parts of the valley and nearby districts indicated significant destruction.
The destruction of homes and businesses is prompting grievances against Pakistani leaders, furthering popular anger and also hampering efforts to jump-start the local economy in a region that was once a crown jewel of Pakistani tourism.
Pakistan launched an offensive against militants in the Swat Valley and surrounding districts last month after they violated the terms of a cease-fire and advanced into a region close to the capital, Islamabad.
Over the weekend, the Pakistani army said it had reclaimed Mingora, Swat's main town.
The defence secretary said on Sunday the whole valley could be back in control within two or three days, though other officials have given longer timeframes.
The Swat offensive has earned Western praise, as troops have regained large swaths of the region from an estimated 4,000 militants, but several places remain under militant control.
Most of Mingora's around 3,75,000 residents fled before or during the offensive.
The military briefly lifted a curfew on Sunday, allowing some of the 20,000 people that remained to buy provisions in the few shops that were open. One resident said he had not left his house for 25 days.
Another, Gohar Ali, said people were afraid to venture outside their homes because of heavy gunfire by the military.
Ali expressed his anger at what he said was the high civilian death toll resulting from the army operation in Mingora.
A man in a nearby village, Mohammad Latif, also blamed the army for targeting civilians and civilian buildings.
Pakistani authorities said they were distributing aid to people trapped in Mingora, and water and gas supplies were being restored.
Pakistan has announced 100 million US dollars in federal aid to help the Swat displaced while the UN is pleading with donors to come up with 543 million US dollars to ease what is one of the largest internal displacements in a country in many years.
Ordinary Pakistanis also have launched drives to help the displaced, most of whom are staying with relatives or friends but some 200,000 of whom are in camps.
There also are plans in the works to beef up the police force in Swat, in part by using retired military officers. But timeframes are unclear.
It will be at least two weeks before power is back on and people displaced by the fighting are not yet being encouraged to return home, he added.
The Taliban warned they would attack Pakistani cities in retaliation for the Swat offensive.
They claimed responsibility for Wednesday's gun and suicide bomb attack in the eastern city of Lahore that killed at least 30 people.
A day later, three suicide bombings killed at least 14 people in two cities in the northwest.
Abbas said on Saturday that 1,217 militants have been killed in the Swat offensive and 79 arrested, and 81 soldiers have died - figures that cannot be independently verified.
The military has not released civilian casualty numbers and says all care is being taken to protect the innocent.
