TRF, a stand-in for Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, was founded online in August 2019 after J&K’s special status was lost and Article 370 was repealed. Tourists In J&K
The Resistance Front (TRF), a shadow organization of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group based in Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the strike following Tuesday’s terrorist attack on tourists at Baisaran, an off-the-road meadow in Pahalgam, South Kashmir, which left at least 26 people dead and numerous others injured, according to central agency sources.
The MHA at the time stated in a notification that TRF was established in 2019 as a LeT proxy. In addition to recruiting young people online to support terrorist actions, TRF has also been active in spreading information about terror, recruiting terrorists, infiltrating terrorists, and importing weapons and drugs into J&K from Pakistan. According to the notification, TRF engages in psychological operations on social media sites to encourage J&K residents to join terrorist groups opposed to the Indian government.
According to officials, Pakistan renamed LeT to TRF. Pakistan did not want the religious overtones associated with Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammad. Their goal was to portray Kashmiri militancy as native. As a result, they decided to use the term “Resistance,” which has some meaning in international affairs, as its name, an official stated.
The MHA notification states that TRF leader Sheikh Sajjad Gul has been classified as a terrorist under the UAPA’s Fourth Schedule.
The TRF’s operations are harmful to India’s security and sovereignty.
Numerous cases have been filed against TRF members and associates for allegedly planning the murders of J&K security forces and civilians, as well as for allegedly organizing and transferring weapons to support banned terrorist groups, the MHA stated.
A number of writers left local newspapers after the group threatened a few media outlets in the Valley for their “traitorous acts.”
Following the repeal of Article 370 and the revocation of J&K’s special status in August 2019, TRF was established as an online organization. The Karachi-based police claim that after roughly six months of building popularity online, TRF emerged on the ground as a combination of many groups, including Ghaznavi Hind and Tehreek-e-Millat Islamia, in addition to the Lashkar.
According to a senior security official, the rebranding had to be done in a way that implied a people’s movement rather than an outfit with a religious color in its name in order to evade attention from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Although other “proxies” were also proposed, TRF continued to be the most active.
The goal of projecting “resistance” in a popular sense in post-2019 Kashmir was to detach it from an Islamic moniker and give it a neutral character.
In 2020, TRF began accepting accountability for attacks. In contrast to the more established groups operating in Kashmir, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, and Hizbul Mujahideen, only the TRF claimed credit for the several attacks that would be carried out around the Valley.
When the J&K Police busted a group of overground workers (OGWs) in Sopore, which was a powerful Lashkar base in the Valley before ceding its position to Hizbul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammad, and Kupwara, the first indications that TRF was becoming a more prominent militant organization were apparent. Tourists In J&K A cache of weapons and ammunition that militants had disposed of close to the Line of Control (LoC) in Keran was found by the police. Tourists In J&K They were “recruiting youth for the new outfit,” according to the OGWs who were arrested.
According to police’s annual data, TRF was responsible for the greatest number of militants killed in the Valley in 2022.
The MHA notified the Rajya Sabha in March 2023 that it had blacklisted 44 terror organizations and 54 terrorists under the UAPA’s First and Fourth Schedules until February of that year.
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Then-Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai informed the House that the First Schedule of the Act now includes the names of four organizations, including TRF, that had been designated as terrorist organizations under the UAPA that year.
Rai claimed that TRF, which was founded in 2019, was a front for the LeT. “It (TRF) has been involved in recruiting terrorists, infiltrating terrorists, Tourists In J&K smuggling weapons and drugs from across the border, coordinating and transporting weapons to support proscribed terrorist organizations, and planning the killings of security force personnel and innocent civilians of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
