Kashmir Resistance: what do we know about the group involved in Pahalgam attack

Kashmir Resistance, also known as The Resistance Front, has claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack on tourists in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK), the deadliest incident of its kind in India since the 2008 shootings in Mumbai.

Here are some facts about the group:

WHAT IS TRF?

TRF emerged in 2019 and is considered an offshoot of an older militant group, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, a Delhi-based think tank.

Indian security officials said TRF uses the name Kashmir Resistance on social media and online forums, where it claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack in Indian Kashmir’s Pahalgam area.

Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), listed as a foreign terrorist organisation by the United States, is the Islamist group accused of plotting attacks in India and in the West, including the three-day assault on Mumbai in November 2008.

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WHAT HAS THE GROUP DONE?

The group has not previously had any large incidents attributed to it, according to Ajai Sahni, head of the South Asia Terrorism Portal.

“All TRF operations are essentially LeT operations. There will be some measure of operational freedom as to where they hit on the ground, but the sanction would have come from the LeT,” Sahni said.

WHAT DOES INDIA SAY ABOUT TRF?

India’s interior ministry told parliament in 2023 that the group had been involved in the planning of killings of security force personnel and civilians in Jammu and Kashmir.

The group also co-ordinated the recruitment of militants and the smuggling of weapons and narcotics across the border, the ministry said.

Intelligence officials told Reuters that TRF had also been issuing online threats against pro-India groups for the past two years.

WHAT DOES PAKISTAN SAY?

Pakistan has vehemently denied that it supports and funds militants in Kashmir.