On The Border: The Boomerang Effect; Musharraf has cracked down on the jihadis' infiltration into Kashmir. But the militants may now have a mind of their own.

Byline: Ron Moreau, Sami Yousafzai and Zahid Hussain

Rafiq Bahai has seen better days. His Pakistani-based group of jihadis, the Al Badr Mujahedin, once led fierce raids on Indian troops in the disputed territory of Kashmir. But last year this regional commander's wings were clipped. President Pervez Musharraf ordered Bahai's recruiting offices shut down, his phone lines cut and his bank account frozen. His Pakistani military handlers have forbidden him from raising funds or recruiting openly. Knowing he is under surveillance, Bahai recently met clandestinely with a NEWSWEEK reporter in a real-estate office in a northern Pakistani town. He boasts that he still has hundreds of fighters operating inside Indian-controlled Kashmir but admits that most of his men, who are largely ethnic Pashtuns from Pakistan, have returned home to their farms and villages since Musharraf's crackdown. "Naturally our mujahedin are frustrated," says the 33-year-old Bahai, who asked that his real name not be used. "But our spirits are high and we still enjoy popular support. Any attempt by Musharraf, India or the United States to stop our jihad will be unsuccessful."

Until last year most militants like Bahai had a cozy relationship with Pakistan's military-intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI. Since the late 1980s the ISI had helped train, arm and infiltrate jihadi fighters into Indian-controlled Kashmir. No longer. To deepen the rapprochement he struck with India during talks with the then Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee last January, Musharraf dropped the military's longtime policy of directly supporting the Kashmiri jihad and promised to stop the infiltration. In return, some of those same extremists have now turned their guns on him. Kashmiri jihadis working with low-level Pakistani militarymen were behind two failed attempts on Musharraf's life last December. ...