US designates Pakistani group's offshoot as 'terrorist' over Kashmir attack

WASHINGTON: The US government designated The Resistance Front, considered an offshoot of the Pakistani extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, as a "foreign terrorist organisation" over the Apr 22 militant attack in India-administered Kashmir that killed 26 people, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday (Jul 17)

The Resistance Front, also known as Kashmir Resistance, initially took responsibility for the attack in Pahalgam before denying it days later.

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

TRF's designation by Washington as a "foreign terrorist organisation" and "specially designated global terrorist" enforced President Donald Trump's "call for justice for the Pahalgam attack", Rubio said in a statement.

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Rubio called TRF, which emerged in 2019, a "front and proxy" for Lashkar-e-Taiba. It is considered an offshoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, a Delhi-based think tank.

The attack sparked heavy fighting between nuclear-armed Asian neighbours India and Pakistan in the latest escalation of a decades-old rivalry. New Delhi blamed the attack on Pakistan, which denied responsibility while calling for a neutral investigation. Washington condemned the attack but did not directly blame Islamabad.