US designates LeT's proxy The Resistance Front as 'terrorist organisation' over Pahalgam attack

New Delhi: The United States has designated The Resistance Front as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) – three months after the outfit, known as a proxy of the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba based in Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the April 22 carnage near Pahalgam in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir of India.

New Delhi welcomed the latest move by President Donald Trump’s administration, with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar calling it “a strong affirmation of India-US counterterrorism cooperation”. The Ministry of External Affairs noted that the TRF had claimed responsibility for the attack in Pahalgam in J&K twice.

The designation of the TRF as an FTO and an SDGT by the US State Department came as a setback to Pakistan, which, with the help of China, had on April 25 managed to remove the reference to the terrorist organisation from a statement issued by the United Nations Security Council condemning the April 22 terrorist attack.

“India has consistently emphasised the need for global cooperation in the fight against terrorism and the dismantling of terror infrastructure. The designation of TRF is a timely and important step reflecting the deep cooperation between India and the United States on counterterrorism,” the MEA stated in New Delhi.

The Trump Administration noted that the TRF, a Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) front and proxy, had claimed responsibility for the April 22, 2025, Pahalgam attack, which had killed 26 civilians. “This was the deadliest attack on civilians in India since the 2008 Mumbai attacks conducted by the LeT. The TRF has also claimed responsibility for several attacks against Indian security forces, including most recently in 2024,” the US Department of State added in a press release issued in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

The TRF and other associated aliases have been added to the LeT’s designation as an FTO and SDGT pursuant to Section 219 of the US Immigration and Nationality Act and Executive Order 13224, respectively.

The US 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, according to the press release issued in Washington, D.C.

“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.”

It is unlawful for a person in the US to knowingly provide “material support or resources” to a designated FTO, according to the US State Department.

Besides, representatives and members of a designated FTO, if they are aliens, are inadmissible to and, in certain circumstances, removable from the US. Any US financial institution that becomes aware that it has possession of or control over funds in which a designated FTO or its agent has an interest must retain possession of or control over the funds and report the funds to the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury.

The US State Department had designated the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed as FTOs in December 2001, but both terrorist organisations based in Pakistan continued to carry out major attacks in India.

After 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed at a meadow in Baisaran near Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir by a gang of Pakistani and Pakistan-trained terrorists on April 22, the TRF claimed responsibility for the attack. The investigation by the agencies of India into the carnage found “communication nodes” of terrorists in and to Pakistan.

The TRF is a front of the LeT, designated by the United Nations as an organisation linked to the global terrorist network. India had given inputs about the TRF in the half-yearly reports it submitted to the monitoring team of the UN's 1267 Sanctions Committee in May and November 2024, pointing out its role as a cover for terrorist organisations based in Pakistan.

The 1267 Sanctions Committee of the Security Council oversees the implementation of the UN sanctions – assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo – against individuals and entities associated with Al-Qaida, ISIL, or the Taliban.

Though the LeT came under the UN sanctions in May 2005, it continued to orchestrate attacks in India from Pakistan. It plotted and perpetrated many attacks, including the November 26-28, 2008, carnage in Mumbai, killing 166 people and leaving many others injured.

New Delhi informed the monitoring team of the 1267 sanctions panel of the UN in December 2023 that the LeT and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), another anti-India terrorist organisation based in Pakistan, had been operating through small terror groups such as the TRF.

With China a permanent member and Pakistan a non-permanent member of the 15-member UN Security Council, New Delhi is likely to face difficulty in getting the TRF designated as a terrorist organisation. Pakistan, backed by China, in fact pressured to remove references to TRF in the April 25 UN Security Council press statement on the carnage in J&K

Though many nations condemned the latest carnage in J&K, most of them refrained from calling out Pakistan for persistently sponsoring terrorism against India. During the May 7-10 cross-border military offensive and counter-offensive between India and Pakistan, several nations urged New Delhi to exercise restraint or work with Islamabad to diffuse tension.

Trump and his administration re-hyphenated India and Pakistan and, despite New Delhi’s rebuttals, claimed credit for brokering a ceasefire between the two South Asian nations. Trump said after the terrorist attack in J&K that he was close to both India and Pakistan, and the two nations had been fighting over Kashmir for 1000 years.

A senior US Army commander showered praises on the Pakistan Army for hunting down the ISIS-K terrorists and called it a “phenomenal partner” in counterterrorism. Though New Delhi accused Pakistan Army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, of provoking the April 22 attacks with his communal rhetoric against India, Trump hosted him at the White House on June 18. He even put Munir and Prime Minister Narendra Modi within the same bracket and said that “two smart people” had decided to halt the military flare-up, which had put the two South Asian neighbours on the brink of war.