Why India Scored Major Win in Getting 'The Resistance Front' Branded as Terrorists
19:21 18.07.2025 (Updated: 19:25 18.07.2025)
© AP Photo / Saurabh Das
Subscribe
India praised the US designation of The Resistance Front (TRF) as a "timely and important step," affirming Delhi's commitment to closely cooperating with international partners to ensure that terrorist groups and their proxies are held accountable.
The official designation of The Resistance Front (TRF)*, a Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT)** proxy, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) by the US State Department is likely to bolster India's ongoing efforts to get the group labelled as such by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Indian officials have already presented evidence about TRF's involvement in the Pahalgam terrorist attack to the UN Security Council’s (UNSC) 1267 Sanctions Committee and the Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), sources have told Sputnik India.
In 2005, the 1267 Sanctions Committee had labelled LeT as terrorists for carrying out acts of terror and for supporting Al-Qaeda*** and its former chief Osama bin Laden. In its UN listing, LeT is described as being based out of Pakistan. The US State Department's designation labelling TRF as a "front and proxy" of LeT acknowledges Pakistan's linkages to TRF.
Sources have indicated that India has been advocating for a UN designation of TRF as a terrorist organisation since at least 2023, providing evidence of the group's activities. Following the Pahalgam terrorist attack on 22 April, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said that New Delhi's diplomatic efforts to include TRF in the UNSC condemnation statement (25 April) had been blocked by Pakistan.
Confirming India's charge, Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told the country's National Assembly in April that Islamabad, currently a non-permanent member of the UNSC, had the reference to TRF removed from the original UNSC draft statement.
"The US had circulated a press release to all 15 members of the UNSC. On behalf of Pakistan, I had two objections to that press release. First, only Pahalgam was mentioned and secondly, the blame was put on The Resistance Forum (an alternative name for TRF)," Dar said.
"The TRF was formed after the decision of August 2019. The original press release condemned TRF and blamed it for the attack... That wasn't acceptable to us..." Dar told the National Assembly, adding that eventually Pakistan's reservations were taken into consideration and the final version of the UNSC statement did not mention TRF.
Significantly, at the time of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers' Meeting in June, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had refused to sign the joint communique due to the non-inclusion of the Palalgam terrorist attack in the final document.
At the time, sources said that Pakistan had blocked efforts to get a reference to the Pahalgam attack in the document and a final communique couldn't be adopted as the SCO worked on the principle of "consensus".
External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar raised the issue of cross-border terrorism with China, another P5 Member and Pakistan's biggest defence and economic partner, during his recent visit, his first since 2019. In his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing this week, Jaishankar noted that combating terrorism, separatism and extremism was a "shared concern" and expressed hope that "zero tolerance for terrorism will be strongly upheld," according to a transcript of his remarks.
At the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers' Meeting (CFM) in Tianjin on 15 July, Jaishankar told the gathering that India continues to pursue the "perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors" of the Pahalgam attack, which he said was "deliberately conducted" to undermine Jammu and Kashmir's tourism economy and foment a "religious divide".
TRF's listing as a terror entity has various financial and legal implications. According to the State Department, it is illegal for a person in the US or those subject to US jurisdiction to knowingly provide “material support or resources” to a designated FTO.
According to UNCTAD's World Investment Report 2024, China, the United Kingdom and the US ranked as the biggest sources of foreign direct investments (FDI) for Pakistan. Meanwhile, Pakistan is a major counter-terrorism partner for the US, a fact reaffirmed by the last month's meeting between Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshall Asim Munir and US President Donald Trump at the White House.
The US designation of TRF risks complicating Pakistan's relationship with Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Notably, both Bretton Woods Institutions have proceeded with their financial commitments to Pakistan despite concerns raised by India, including objections voiced by the Indian government multiple times, following the Pahalgam terror attack.
Another implication for Pakistan, as pointed out by sources, is the risk of being put back on the 'Grey List' of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Pakistan was on the Grey List between 2008 and 2015 and between 2018 and 2022 over risks of terror financing (TF), which is a key mandate of the organisation.
At the June joint FATF plenary, India reiterated its concerns regarding Pakistan's "state sponsorship of terrorism," labelling it a "high-risk source of Terror Financing (TF)." Pakistan had invested significant diplomatic capital in efforts to remove itself from the Grey List in 2022. Last month, Khwaja Asif, Pakistan’s defence chief, posted a comment on social media claiming that India had received a "snub" because the FATF did not include Pakistan on its Grey List, despite what he described as "all the conspiracies of India and Israel."
* a designated terror group in India
** a UN-designated terror group
*** a UN-designated terror group
