The Pakistani major said: “It took 20 years to create the current situation and it will also take the same period of time to resolve such a situation.”

It has been eight years since the US launched the first cruise missile to try to assassinate head of the al-Qaeda terrorist network Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, and five years since bin Laden and his accomplices were believed to have fled to Pakistan's Pashtun tribal areas. Despite the massive deployment of US troops in Afghanistan and Pakistani soldiers in border areas of Afghanistan, bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar have not been captured, while the resistance against the war on terrorism has become increasingly stronger.

Earlier, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf admitted that “Talibanisation” took place not only in autonomous areas of Pashtun tribes but also in surrounding areas under control of the Pakistani Government. A group of mullahs gathered Pashtun tribesmen against the Pakistani Government.

In the past two months, ambushes and attacks on military patrol delegations have occurred almost daily in north Waziristan. In March, several thousand armed Pashtun tribesmen attacked a main military base and Miran Shah town. In recent weeks, militants have assassinated about 120 pro-government tribal leaders, including a dozen beheadings.

Major General Sahi Akram, who commands 45,000 troops in North Waziristan, said since July 2005 his military unit have razed several religious schools used by mullahs to recruit and train soldiers, and killed 324 militants, including 76 foreign fighters. However, he said currently Waziristan is still considered a paradise for Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Pakistan has to face a multi-faceted enemy. They are illiterate tribesmen, dubbed “Taliban Pakistan”, who are motivated by religious issues, money or politics; Taliban Afghanistan; and disparate groups of Arabs, Chechnyas and Central Asians, some of whom have connections with al-Qaeda or their parents settled in Waziristan after joining the anti-Soviet “jihad” movement in the 1980s.

During his visit to Pakistan in March 2006, US President George W. Bush publicly asked President Musharraf to make greater efforts to prevent militants from crossing Pakistani borders to Afghanistan, where coalition forces are facing waves of escalating violence.

However, it is difficult to meet Mr Bush’s request. Major General Shaukat Sultan, head of the Pakistani army's public relations department, said: “Pakistan has 227 posts in border areas near Afghanistan, while the US and Afghanistan have 27 military posts.”