THE RESISTANCE FRONT: NEW FACE OF TERROR

The group, which emerged on the militancy landscape of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, has a well-trained cadre that has carried out targeted killings in the Valley

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The killings of 25 tourists, including one Nepali, and a local pony operator by a group of terrorists trained in jungle warfare in a meadow of Pahalgam’s Baisaran in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on April 22 shook the entire nation. It turned the spotlight on The Resistance Front (TRF), an outfit that initially claimed responsibility (a claim it later withdrew) for the attack.

Security agencies in Kashmir see the TRF as an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The nomenclature, many security experts in Kashmir believe, was aimed at presenting itself as a “new-age ideological force” and distancing itself from other Islamist groups such as al-Qaeda and Jaish-e-Muhammad.

Pahalgam terror attack: The meadow cries out in fear and grief