US Lists ‘The Resistance Front’ as Global Terrorist Organization | 19 Jul 2025

Source: TH 

India welcomed the US decision to officially designate The Resistance Front (TRF) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) group. 

• After the Pahalgam attack and India's counter-terrorism strike on Pakistan through Operation Sindoor, India launched a diplomatic push urging global action against TRF (a group that claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam terror attack).  
  • While the UN Security Council condemned the attack, it did not name TRF. 
• TRF is a Pakistan-based designated terrorist group, active in Jammu and Kashmir. It emerged in 2019 after the abrogation of Article 370. It is widely seen as a proxy for the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). 
  • TRF was created to give militancy in Kashmir an “indigenous” look and to avoid international scrutiny, especially from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which had greylisted Pakistan. 
• India’s and TRF: In 2023, the Ministry of Home Affairs declared the TRF a terrorist organisation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, (UAPA) 1967, for its involvement in terror propaganda, recruitment, infiltration, and smuggling of arms and narcotics from Pakistan into Jammu and Kashmir. 
  • UAPA 1967 criminalises terrorism, allows banning of terrorist groups and individuals.