The Resistance Front designated FTO by US after Pahalgam attack: What to know

Indian Express

4 days ago

The US Department of State on Friday (July 18) added The Resistance Front as a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT).
The Resistance Front (TRF) had claimed responsibility for the April 22 Pahalgam attack, which resulted in the deaths of 26 tourists and a local pony operator in the Baisaran meadow in South Kashmir's Pahalgam.
Indian Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar welcomed the news in a social media post, writing that this was a 'strong affirmation of India-US counter-terrorism cooperation.'
A strong affirmation of India-US counter-terrorism cooperation.
Appreciate @SecRubio and @StateDept for designating TRF—a Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) proxy—as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). It claimed responsibility for the…
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) July 18, 2025
The Resistance Front (TRF) is an offshoot of the Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) declared the TRF a 'terrorist organisation' under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in January 2023. The government said it was engaged in propaganda on terror activities, recruitment of terrorists, infiltration of terrorists and smuggling of weapons and narcotics from Pakistan into Jammu and Kashmir.
But the TRF first started making headlines in 2020. In May of that year, five Army commandos were killed in a gunbattle in Keran, in which five TRF militants were also killed. Similar clashes occurred around that time in Handwara and Sopore, killing security personnel.
Two key events had taken place before this. The first was the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 in August 2019. The second was the decapitation of the LeT in Kashmir in 2018.
The US State Department recognises foreign organisations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). This allows the US to take punitive actions against these groups, such as restricting their ability to operate in the US and denying them access to resources.
Quite simply, the designation seeks to cripple the organisation. It is not only unlawful for a US-based person to provide 'material support or resources' to a designated FTO, but American financial institutions may also be required to block all transactions involving assets held or controlled by an FTO.
Around 79 organisations have currently been designated as FTOs by the US, including TRF.
The US Office of Foreign Assets (OFAC) may also designate such terror organisations as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs), and thus the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list to block their assets. Such designations may also trigger secondary sanctions to target individuals in business with the designated SDGT.
How did The Resistance Front grow?
The Lashkar-e-Taiba was founded around 1985, and one of its main goals was merging the whole of Kashmir with Pakistan. However, by the end of 2018, it had suffered significant reverses at the hands of Indian security forces.
In November 2018, Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Naveed Jatt alias Abu Hanzulla was killed in a gunfight on the outskirts of Srinagar. Jatt was the fifth top Lashkar commander to have been killed in a period of 45 days. Before Jatt, Lashkar's Srinagar chief Mehraj-ud-din Bangroo, its top commander in North Kashmir, Abu Muaz, and its top South Kashmir commanders Azad Ahmad Malik and Mushtaq Ahmad Mir, had been killed.
The wiping off of the top leadership drastically reduced LeT's strike capability in the Valley.
Then came the revocation of Article 370.
According to sources in the security forces, Pakistan wanted to retaliate against this, but was mindful of its greylisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The FATF is an inter-governmental body which tracks terrorism financing. If it believes that a country is not doing enough to prevent international money laundering and terrorist financing, it puts the country on the grey list. This impacts the country's ability to attract international investment and engage with banks and other international financial institutions.
Thus, it wanted a militant outfit in Kashmir that sounded more 'secular and indigenous'.
A police officer had told The Indian Express in 2020, 'Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammad had religious connotations and Pakistan didn't want that. They wanted to secularise the Kashmir militancy and make it appear indigenous. Hence they opted for 'Resistance' — that has some currency in global politics — in its name.'
Another officer had said, 'Unlike local militants, who have no training, these new militants seem to have trained hard. As far as we know, they are trained for at least six months before being inducted. The outfit has a mix of both local and foreign militants so that it looks indigenous. The surprising part is that the local militants are also very well trained in Pakistan.'
The TRF is active on social media channels, such as Facebook, Telegram, and WhatsApp, where it posts propaganda videos and claims responsibility for various attacks.
This is an updated version of an explainer that was first published on April 23, 2025.
Bashaarat Masood is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express. He has been covering Jammu and Kashmir, especially the conflict-ridden Kashmir valley, for two decades. Bashaarat joined The Indian Express after completing his Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism from the University in Kashmir. He has been writing on politics, conflict and development. Bashaarat was awarded with the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards in 2012 for his stories on the Pathribal fake encounter. ... Read More