While Pakistan has been patting its own back over the recent arrests of some of the top Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders from Karachi and other parts of the country, US Central Command Chief General David Patraeus has stressed that Islamabad has still a long way to go in the fight against terror.

In an interview to the CNN, Patraeus said Pakistan's recent action against the Taliban is a 'work in progress'.

"Pakistan's fight against the Taliban is 'very much a work in progress'. This is the beginning of a campaign there, and the important development is that this is the Pakistanis fighting their war against internal extremists that threaten them," Patraeus said.

He said that after living in denial for years Pakistani leadership finally seems to have recognised the threat posed by the Taliban and other outlawed extremist groups, which have challenged the very existence of the state.

"This is the decision... that was reached some 10 months or so ago after the Pakistani people, all of the Pakistani leaders... recognised that the threat of the internal extremists to the Pakistani state was reaching existential proportions," Patraeus said.

"The Taliban in the Swat districts, Swat Valley in particular, and in the Malakand Division were threatening the very writ of governance," he added. (ANI)