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Speaking Tuesday to a group of visiting Nepalese journalists, Information and Broadcasting Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said local people in the Malakand region have formed their Lashkars, or militias, to help the military, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

In the current operation, the minister said most of the areas have been cleared of the militants and their strongholds destroyed.

A New York Times report also said the grassroots rebellion points to change in the public mood against the militants and gives the villagers confidence they can meet the challenge.

The report said in Dir district, where a mosque bombing last Friday killed 30 people, about 1,000 angry villagers have since been fighting the militants, killing at least 11 of them.

The Times report said the military is now providing helicopter gunship support, but locals say they don't want these aircraft to indulge in indiscriminate fire.

Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, a Pakistani military spokesman, told CNN the military is supporting the villagers.

A sustained Dir uprising could prove vital in containing the insurgency in other areas of the northwest, the Times said. It can also help check the Taliban from using the area to mount attacks on Americans across the border in Afghanistan.

Some local people told the Times it was the mosque bombing that set off the mood change.

"This bomb blast proved the last straw", said Jamil Roghani, who provides medical help to the wounded, adding the people will not quit "until we destroy them. We know this is not Islam. These are criminals."

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