Washington: The United States has designated Pakistan-backed The Resistance Front (TRF) as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in a statement on Friday.
Rubio said that TRF, a proxy of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), had claimed responsibility for the April 22, 2025 attack in Pahalgam, India, in which 26 civilians were killed. It was the deadliest civilian attack by LeT in India since the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
TRF has also claimed responsibility for multiple attacks on Indian security forces, including an attack in 2024. The US government’s move is being seen as an effort by President Trump to ensure accountability for the Pahalgam attack and demonstrates the administration’s stance against terrorism, the statement said.
Active mainly in Jammu and Kashmir, TRF is known to recruit individuals appearing as ordinary citizens while secretly involving them in terror activities, often described as hybrid terrorists. The Government of India had declared TRF as a terrorist organisation on January 5, 2023.
