MULTAN (AFP) - Tribal elders on Tuesday urged the government to stop military operations against Taliban militants in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and to start peace talks. More than 50 tribal elders and politicians delivered the demand at a day-long jirga organised by Jamaat-i-Islami, in Multan."The govt should avoid confrontation and adopt the way of negotiations and 'jirga' to restore peace and tranquility," the declaration said. The elders "vehemently condemned" US missile strikes on Pakistan and asked the govt to deny logistics and intelligence support to the NATO-led and US military across the border in Afghanistan. The participants also "condemned" Pakistan for awarding civil honours to US officials as "an act of high treason". US Vice President Joe Biden received one such special award for "efforts to strengthen democracy in Pakistan" during a visit to Islamabad this month. The tribal elders charged there had been thousands of casualties, including women and children, in military operations across the tribal areas and the Swat valley. There is no independent assessment of the number of people killed, wounded or displaced by the conflict. "Tribesmen are patriots like people elsewhere in Pakistan but they are being killed at the behest of the United States," said the declaration, calling for resettlement and compensation for those affected. Senior Jamaat-i-Islami leader Liaquat Baloch expressed fears that an expected surge of up to 30,000 extra US troops in Afghanistan would see operations stepped up on the Pakistani side of the border. Since August, dozens of missile strikes on Pakistan have sparked strong, nationwide criticism of the United States, a close ally fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan and believed to be firing the missiles from CIA drones. Cabinet minister and leader of the senate Raza Rabbani on Monday said there had been 32 drone attacks since March last year.