The surge in missile attacks comes amidst reports of local tribesmen forming lashkars to confront the Taliban and Al Qaeda militants. These lashkars have been taken on heavily armed Taliban militants and there have been reports of deaths on either sides in such clashes.

The mustering of lashkars against the Taliban militants is being undertaken at the behest of the government and in this backdrop Gilani said the authorities were capable of taking on the militants head on but it should be kept in mind that the "use of force is no answer to what is an essentially a political matter".

Gilani also made a veiled reference to the presence of foreign fighters in the troubled Bajaur tribal region, where security forces have killed some 1,500 Taliban fighters since mid-August.

"When thousands of people cross over from the border to attack our army, all accords are automatically broken. The military is operating in tribal and some settled areas of the NWFP to help the government bring law and order under control," he said in strong defence of ongoing military operations.

"It (the military) will be replaced with civil armed forces as soon as objectives are achieved," he said.

Gilani said the parliament's recent unanimous resolution on forging a new approach to tackling militancy was made possible due to a bipartisan effort by lawmakers. The resolution had laid down guidelines to tackle terrorism and militancy.

"In any case, the use of force should be the last option. Now that the action is going on, we need to strengthen our civil armed forces to replace the army as we have been assured by friendly countries (about equipping) them with modern facilities," he said.