Pakistan's Fata is at the heart of the immediate crisis, as it provides safe haven for the Taliban guerrillas and Al Qaeda terrorists, and have sown seeds of Islamic militancy and terror inside Pakistan proper, he said.

"The geopolitical nexus of Pakistan-Fata-Afghanistan- India must be seen as a regional crisis that requires a holistic politico-military approach," Borchgrave said.

Introducing the report, Nawaz argued that the most dangerous place on the map may be the source of another 9/11 type of attack on the western world or its surrogates in the region, in an apparent reference to the Mumbai terrorist attack.

Should such an attack occur, it likely will be spawned in the militancy that grips Fata and contiguous areas in Afghanistan and Pakistan today, he said.

Recommending that the US should forge a long-term relationship with Pakistan and its people, the report observes that failure to bring peace and to restore a modicum of stability to Fata will have widespread repercussions for the region and perhaps the world.