Goaded (perhaps unwisely) by America, it has sent 80,000 troops into its tribal border area, thereby starting a war with tribesmen in which 800 soldiers have died. Lest anyone doubt these efforts, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, has often called on devout Muslims to kill Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president. On several occasions, some of them have tried to do so.

And yet Pakistan is home to a broad Islamist militant threat of which al-Qaeda is but one part, and this is less easily countered. There are scores of extremist groups in Pakistan and thousands of trained Islamist killers. Most of these have been nurtured by successive military governments, to fight their wars in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Pakistan’s own riotous cities. ~The Economist (19 Aug 2006)