US designates group blamed for Kashmir attack as ‘terrorists
The April attack triggered war between India and Pakistan.
By IAR Desk
The United States on Thursday designated as “terrorists” a shadowy group blamed for an April attack in India-administered Kashmir, which triggered the worst conflict between India and Pakistan in decades.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio described The Resistance Front (TRF) as a “front and proxy” of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a UN-designated “terrorist” group”.
The “terrorist” designation “demonstrates the Trump administration’s commitment to protecting our national security interests, countering terrorism, and enforcing President (Donald) Trump’s call for justice for the Pahalgam attack,” Rubio said in a statement.
Gunmen in April shot dead 26 people, almost all Hindus, in Pahalgam, a tourist hub in the India-administered side of disputed Kashmir.
Strong affirmation
India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Friday said that Washington’s action was a “strong affirmation of India-US counter-terrorism cooperation”, writing on X.
Little had been previously known about TRF, which initially claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam attack.
But as public criticism mounted over the killings, the group retracted its claim.
The Pahalgam violence sparked four days of fighting between the two neighbours that killed more than 70 people on both sides, in the worst standoff between the foes since 1999.
Pakistan shot down multiple Indian jets, including Rafales, during the skirmish.
Kashmir Flashpoint
Kashmir has been a flashpoint between India and Pakistan since soon after independence from British colonial rule and the partition of the Indian subcontinent into two sovereign states – India and Pakistan.
Jammu and Kashmir is India ‘s only Muslim majority state and based on religious affiliation Pakistan sent insurgents into the state and occupied part of it. It began an insurgency movement for possession of the entire state which it supports till date. The indigenous movement for insurgency which began in the 1990s in Indian Kashmir has largely died down.
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