India must build on the US action against TRF

Countering terrorism in 2025 is anchored in geopolitics, which offers both opportunities and challenges. The recent decision by the US State Department to place The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in its list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations (FTO) is an observable moment in the New Delhi-Washington trajectory.

- Kabir Taneja

TRF had claimed responsibility for the horrific Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed. India responded with Operation Sindoor, a military operation targeting terror camps and infrastructure deep inside Pakistani territory, leading to the most significant conflict since the 1999 Kargil war. Since then, US President Donald Trump has claimed that he mediated a ceasefire between the two countries. India has steadfastly maintained it agreed to a thaw only after Islamabad reached out.

TRF is the latest manifestation of Pakistan's long quest to promote cross-border terrorism as state policy.

For a long time, it has been LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) which have been at the forefront of these efforts. TRF was formed at the end of 2019, mostly as a reaction to India's decision to abrogate Article 370 that gave Kashmir a special status. Another similar entity, the People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), also reared its head in the Kashmir Valley around the same time. Both use non-Islamic terminologies in their name, unlike LeT and JeM, making them more ideologically attached to the idea of nationalistic and patriotic resistance than a theology-centric one.