Wana, Pakistan ? In Pakistan’s wild country along the Afghan border, al-Qaida fugitives and homegrown Islamic extremists are teaming up to confront Pakistan’s government and its American allies.

Pakistanis and Afghans familiar with extremist organizations say their aim is to punish President Pervez Musharraf for abandoning the Afghan Taliban and banning several militant groups in Pakistan in connection with the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

Police fear the kidnapping and slaying of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl and the March 17 grenade attack on an Islamabad church attended by foreigners may be examples of what the extremists have in store.

“It is their hate for America that bonds them,” said retired Maj. Gen. Anwar Sher, who worked with militant Islamic groups during the war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. “This hate against America naturally is also directed at Musharraf. He has joined with America, and these religious groups don’t like it.”

Evidence of that cooperation surfaced last week when Pakistani police, assisted by FBI agents, raided extremist hide-outs in two Pakistani cities, arresting about 60 people.

According to Sher and others, the leading Pakistani groups involved in the struggle against Musharraf are Jaish-e-Mohammed, Harakat-ul Mujahedeen, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Sipah-e-Sahaba  all banned by Musharraf on Jan. 12.

“Jaish-e-Mohammad and these extremist groups are together with al-Qaida, working together,” Sher said.

Not far from the border, a Pakistani official, Maj. Mohammed Saeed, said al-Qaida infiltration “is creating problems for Pakistan.” He said 2,000 soldiers and militiamen are trying to seal the border, but al-Qaida members “are getting assistance from Jaish-e-Mohammed.”

“We have to stop them  not for America but for Pakistan,” he said.

Although Pakistani extremists and al-Qaida operate throughout the country, U.S. and Pakistani authorities believe much of their activity is centered in the rugged, remote tribal belt along the Afghan border.

There, central government control is weak, and real authority rests with tribal leaders who have close ethnic and cultural ties to parts of Afghanistan that produced the Taliban leadership. Many former Taliban leaders studied at religious schools in Pakistan during the Soviet war.

Many tribe members boast that they would help al-Qaida members hide if the U.S.-led coalition pursues fighters fleeing into Pakistan.