The danger comes not only from Taliban, who are ethnic Pashtuns from Pakistan's north-west fringe, which borders Afghanistan, but also from extremists from its heartland Punjab province, who have forged a network with the Taliban.
So Pakistan is threatened by a network of extremism that has cells throughout the country, able to mount attacks seemingly at will against any target. The militants are able to mount both suicide attacks and more sophisticated commando or "fidayeen" gun and grenade assaults, using well-trained jihadists against sometimes highly protected targets. Such attacks have intensified in frequency to leave more than 100 people dead in the space of a week, mostly from suicide bombings which have predominantly killed civilians.
The deadly nexus between Punjabi jihadists from more established groups, and their Pakistani Taliban comrades was exposed in the attack on the military headquarters (GHQ) at Rawalpindi at the weekend. Five of the 10 assailants were Punjabis. Their ringleader, Aqeel alias Dr Usman, was from a Punjabi extremist outfit, but the training for the operation was carried out in Waziristan, according to the army.
The "fidayeen", military-style tactics could even be used against Pakistan's nuclear sites, according to Shaun Gregory, a professor at Bradford University and an expert on Pakistan's nuclear programme. This could result in installations being bombed, set on fire or nuclear material stolen.
"The only thing that stands between al-Qaeda and nuclear weapons is the Pakistan army," said Prof Gregory. "It is an incredible shock that terrorists can strike at the heart of GHQ . Terrorists could mount this sort of assault against Pakistan's nuclear installations."
The same sort of fidayeen attack was seen in the assault on Mumbai in late 2008 by the Pakistan-based Laskar-e-Taiba (LeT), and the ambush of the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore earlier this year. Aqeel was already being hunted as the mastermind of that attack.
While Pakistan has taken on the Taliban extremists and plans to strike their sprawling stronghold in Waziristan, the menace from Punjab, a developed and highly populated area, is much harder to tackle and so far there has been no concerted military action taken against militants operating there.
Many see the strike on the army headquarters as a "wake up" call about the threat from Punjab.
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