These tough fighters have taken control of portions of Pakistan's tribal territories and have begun moving into settled areas of Pakistan proper. They recently tried to establish a fundamentalist mini-state in the beautiful tourist valley of Swat.
In the last two years, this jihadi core has been expanded by Pakistani extremists who were trained by Pakistan's intelligence agencies to fight against India in Kashmir. Muslim extremist groups have amalgamated into a Movement of Taliban in Pakistan.
Based in Pakistan's tribal lands, they are trying to establish Islamic "emirates" in rural areas from which to destabilize the country. Some travel back across the border to attack NATO troops in Afghanistan. But their ultimate goal, say Pakistani experts, is to establish a radical Islamist foothold in Pakistan.
"I don't think it's America's war," I was told by Khalid Aziz, a leading expert on the tribal areas, who was chief secretary of the Northwest Frontier Province. "America has highlighted an issue the region was threatened with. If 9/11 had not happened, the same situation would have occurred. It's our problem. The next atrocity can be in Lahore or Islamabad."
His words proved prophetic. Two hours after our conversation, Ms. Bhutto was killed, close to Islamabad.
Ms. Bhutto recognized that the key to fighting the jihadis lay with Pakistan's political leaders. Pakistan's military has been ambivalent about the fight in the past. Many suspect its intelligence agencies, which once trained the Taliban, of harboring some sympathies for the group. President Pervez Musharraf has let the domestic jihadi problem expand immensely on his watch.
Only an elected Pakistani leader can lend legitimacy to the fight and convince Pakistanis (and maybe the military) that it is their war. A committed civilian leader such as Ms. Bhutto might have encouraged tribal leaders to fight back against encroachment by jihadi groups.
Mr. Musharraf has shown little interest in visiting the tribal areas. But Ms. Bhutto's father, the charismatic Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (who was hanged by a previous military dictator), used to visit tribal chiefs regularly to hear their problems and offer aid. Ms. Bhutto might have renewed the contacts and given them the support they need.
What she seemed to have grasped, unlike other Pakistani leaders, was the need for a strategic campaign against extremists in her country. "We are prepared to risk our lives," she said not long ago, in a TV clip replayed endlessly since her death, "but we are not prepared to surrender our great nation to the militants."
No other Pakistani political leader seems ready to make that commitment.
Trudy Rubin is a columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Her column appears Tuesdays in The Sun. Her e-mail is trubin@phillynews.com.
