Centre bans LeT's proxy outfit 'The Resistance Front'

The Government on Thursday night declared 'The Resistance Front' (TRF), a proxy of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), as a banned organisation and LeT's launching commander based in Pakistan Mohammed Amin as a terrorist under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

In a notification, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said the TRF was recruiting youth through online medium for furtherance of terrorist activities besides being involved in carrying out propaganda on terror activities, recruitment of terrorists, infiltration of terrorists and smuggling of weapons and narcotics from Pakistan into Jammu and Kashmir.

It also said the TRF is involved in psychological operations on social media platforms for inciting people of Jammu and Kashmir to join terrorist outfits. Already the government has declared TRF's self-styled commander Sheikh Sajjad Gul has been designated as a terrorist under UAPA.

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The activities of TRF are "detrimental for the national security and sovereignty of India" and a large number of cases have been registered against TRF members for planning the killings of security personnel and civilians of Jammu and Kashmir, co-coordinating and transporting weapons to support proscribed terrorist organisation, terror attack on security forces and killing of innocent persons, the notification said, justifying its banning.

In a separate notification, the government also designated Amin alias Abu Khubaib as an individual terrorist. He will be the 50th in the list of people designated as terrorists under UAPA.

Amin, who belongs to Jammu and Kashmir but currently lives in Pakistan, is acting as the launching commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba and has developed a deep association with cross-border agencies, it said.

He is "playing a vital role to revive and accelerate" terrorist activities of LeT in the Jammu region, the notification said adding, he has been involved in coordinating terrorist attacks, supply of arms or weapons and explosives, and terror financing in Jammu and Kashmir from across the border.

In October 2020, the Centre had designated 18 people, including Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahudeen, Indian Mujahideen founders Bhatkal brothers -- Riyaz and Iqbal -- and Dawood aide Chotta Shakeel as 'terrorists'.

In September 2019, four people, including Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Sayeed and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, and in July 2020, nine Sikhs involved in Khalistan movement were declared terrorists.

The list also includes two hijackers -- Ibrahim Athar and Yusuf Azhar -- of Indian Airlines plane in 1999 and Ibrahim Memon, who is based in Pakistan and wanted in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case. Athar is also a key conspirator in the 2001 Parliament attack case.

Hafiz Sayeed's brother-in-law Abdur Rehman Makki, who heads the outfit's political affairs department and served as the head of LeT's foreign relations department, Sajid Mir, a Pakistan-based LeT Commander and one of the main planners of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, and Yusuf Muzammil, accused in 26/11 as well as LeT frontal organisation Falah-i-lnsaniyat Foundation Deputy Chief Shahid Mehmood also figure in the list.

Earlier, Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed's son Hafiz Talha Saeed, Jaish-e-Mohammed's Mohiuddin Aurangzeb Alamgir, who was involved in the 2019 Pulwama terror strike, and Ali Jan as well as AlUmar-Mujahideen founder Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar were also declared terrorists.