‘No objection to US listing TRF as terror group’: Pakistani FM

WASHINGTON: Pakistan's Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar defended Pakistan's stance on proscribed terror group The Resistance Front, shortly after the United States listed the outfit as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO).

- Shashank Mattoo

The Resistance Frontwhich India and the US believe is an offshoot of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba - claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam terror attacks in April.

“It is obviously a sovereign decision of the United States to designate the TRF. We have no issue. And we welcome, if they have any evidence, that they are involved,” said Dar at an event here in Washington DC. Dar met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier on Friday.

“Linking the TRF to the Lashkar-e-Taiba is wrong. That outfit was dismantled years ago by Pakistan. The actors were prosecuted, arrested and jailed and the entire outfit was destroyed,” said Dar, repeating a claim often made by Pakistan's government.

Earlier this year, Dar told Pakistan’s parliament that Islamabad had blocked mention of the TRF in a UN Security Council Resolution which condemned the Pahalgam attacks,

“We opposed the mention of TRF in the UNSC statement.