The United States has branded The Resistance Front (TRF) as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation, holding it accountable for the massacre of 28 civilians in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on 22 April this year.
The designation, announced on Thursday by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also labels the outfit a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). TRF is widely believed to operate as a proxy of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), long designated as a global jihadist entity.
“This was the deadliest attack on civilians in India since the 2008 Mumbai attacks conducted by LeT,” Rubio’s statement read, adding that TRF had claimed responsibility for several previous strikes on Indian security forces, including those in 2024.
"Today, the Department of State is adding The Resistance Front (TRF) as a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). TRF, a Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) front and proxy, claimed responsibility for the April 22, 2025, Pahalgam attack which killed 26 civilians. This was the deadliest attack on civilians in India since the 2008 Mumbai attacks conducted by LeT. TRF has also claimed responsibility for several attacks against Indian security forces, including most recently in 2024," the statement said.
The action by Washington follows mounting international pressure to hold Pakistan-backed terror proxies to account and aligns with the United Nations Security Council’s strong condemnation of the Pahalgam attack. The attack, Indian officials have said, was aimed at destabilising the region’s economy by targeting its tourism sector, while simultaneously seeking to stoke communal tensions.
“These actions taken by the Department of State demonstrate the Trump Administration's commitment to protecting our national security interests, countering terrorism, and enforcing President Trump's call for justice for the Pahalgam attack,” the US statement said.
Also read: Pahalgam terrorists fired in air after killing 26, says witness
The inclusion of TRF and its aliases under LeT’s designation as an FTO and SDGT has been formalised under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and Executive Order 13224. The move effectively criminalises financial, logistical or other forms of material support to the group within US jurisdiction.
"TRF and other associated aliases have been added to LeT's designation as a FTO and SDGT pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and Executive Order 13224, respectively. The Department of State has also reviewed and maintained the FTO designation of LeT. Amendments to FTO designations go into effect upon publication in the Federal Register," the statement added.
At the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting in Tianjin earlier this week, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar described the Pahalgam killings as a calculated terror strike designed to erode peace and prosperity in Kashmir.
“Recently, we in India witnessed a graphic example in the terrorist attack in Pahalgam on 22 April 2025. It was deliberately conducted to undermine the tourism economy of Jammu and Kashmir, while sowing a religious divide. The UN Security Council, of which some of us are currently members, issued a statement that condemned it in the strongest terms and ‘underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of this reprehensible act of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice’. We have since done exactly that and will continue doing so. It is imperative that the SCO, to remain true to its founding objectives, take an uncompromising position on this challenge,” said Jaishankar.
India has maintained that TRF is one of several Lashkar-e-Taiba fronts created to obscure the role of Pakistan’s deep state in fomenting cross-border terrorism. New Delhi is likely to view the US designation as a long-overdue recognition of this strategy.
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