UN report flags The Resistance Front's role in Pahalgam attack, links to LeT

The Resistance Front, a proxy of the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group, has found mention for the first time in a UN Security Council (UNSC) report for its role in the Pahalgam attack that is expected to bolster India's diplomatic offensive against Pakistan-backed cross-border terrorism.

The report by the UNSC's Monitoring Team (MT) quoted one unnamed member state as saying that the April 22 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir could not have happened without Lashkar-e-Taiba's (LeT) support and that there was a relationship between the “LeT and The Resistance Front (TRF).”

This also marks the first mention of the LeT and Pakistan-based terror groups in the report since 2019. Just two weeks prior, the United States had designated TRF as a terrorist organisation.

The MT report said five terrorists carried out the Pahalgam attack. Twenty-six civilians were killed in the attack. The attack was claimed that same day by The Resistance Front (TRF), which in parallel published a photograph of the attack site. The claim of responsibility was repeated the following day, it said.

The report also noted that TRF retracted the claim on April 26 and there was no further communication from it, adding no other group claimed responsibility.

“Regional relations remain fragile. There is a risk that terrorist groups may exploit these regional tensions. One member State said the attack could not have happened without LeT's support, and that there was a relationship between LeT and TRF,” the report said.

The development is significant as all decisions of the UNSC's 1267 Sanctions Committee, including reports, are adopted by consensus by members of the top body of the UN.

Currently, Pakistan holds the presidency of the UNSC for a two-year term. Earlier, Pakistan’s foreign minister Ishaq Dar boasted in the country’s National Assembly about forcing the removal of references to TRF in the UNSC press statement condemning the Pahalgam attack.

Pakistan's strategy was of plausible deniability, using secular and modern names like “The Resistance Front” and “People Against Fascist Front” for its jihadi proxies to divert attention from LeT and JeM (Jaish-e-Mohammed) terror groups, while giving an indigenous appearance to its terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

India has been mounting a sustained diplomatic campaign to expose the links between TRF and LeT, as well as Pakistan’s patronage of these groups.

Since December 2023, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has been submitting detailed inputs on TRF and other Pakistan-backed terror outfits to the UNSC monitoring team.

In 2024, the MEA has provided inputs on two separate occasions regarding TRF’s operations and its connection to LeT.

In May 2024, an MEA-led inter-ministerial delegation visited New York, where it briefed the monitoring team and other senior UN officials, also submitting a comprehensive dossier on TRF’s activities. The delegation also held exclusive briefings with like-minded Security Council members and other key UN states.

Pakistan’s obstructive approach to global counter-terrorism efforts was highlighted and recognised by the international community of the persistent threat posed by Pakistan-based terrorist groups and their proxies.

The UNSC monitoring team, established under Resolution 1267 in 1999, is tasked with overseeing sanctions on terrorist entities. While the original focus was on Al-Qaida, over time, groups like ISIS and Lashkar-e-Taiba have also come under its scrutiny.