LeT affiliate "Resistance Front" claims Pahalgam attack

In the wake of the terrorist attack on tourists at Baisaran, an off-the-road meadow, in South Kashmir’s Pahalgam Tuesday, in which at least 26 people were killed and several others injured, The Resistance Front (TRF), a shadow group of the banned Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group, claimed responsibility for the strike, according to sources in the central agencies.

In January 2023, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) declared the TRF a “terrorist organisation” under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for propaganda on terror activities, recruitment of terrorists, infiltration of terrorists and smuggling of weapons and narcotics from Pakistan into Jammu and Kashmir, reports indianexpress.

The move had come months after TRF issued threats to journalists in Kashmir.

According to a notification issued by the MHA then, TRF came into existence in 2019 as a proxy outfit of LeT.

“TRF is recruiting youth through online medium for furtherance of terrorist activities and has been also involved in carrying out propaganda on terror activities, recruitment of terrorists, infiltration of terrorists and smuggling of weapons and narcotics from Pakistan into J&K. TRF is involved in psychological operations on social media platforms for inciting people of J&K to join terrorist outfits against the Indian state,” the notification said.

TRF was a new name given by Pakistan to LeT, officials said. “Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammad had religious connotations and Pakistan did not want that. They wanted to make Kashmir militancy appear indigenous. Hence, they opted for ‘Resistance’ — that has some currency in global politics — in its name,” an official said._Agencies.