TRF deserves designation as foreign terrorist organisation: US House Foreign Affairs Committee
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Deccan Herald
10 hours ago
- Deccan Herald
TRF's terror tag bolsters India's case
The designation of The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), as a global terrorist organisation by the United States is a victory for India and a vindication of New Delhi's position on cross-border terrorism. It is significant in view of India's contention that the organisation was behind the April 22 Pahalgam attack. .TRF twice claimed responsibility for the attack though it later denied involvement, probably under pressure from its handlers across the border. India has mounted persistent diplomatic pressure on the US and other countries to recognise the existence of the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan which is directed against India. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio noted that TRF had claimed responsibility also for other attacks, against Indian security forces. But it will be noted that Rubio did not name Pakistan, where the LeT is US has described TRF as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) and a front for the LeT. The LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammad have been marked for involvement in terrorist activities directed against India. Both organisations have been in the US FTO list from 2001. Pakistan has denied their existence while India has contended that both are active in that country. .India should continue its efforts to get TRF named as a terrorist outfit in the UN Security Council records. The UNSC resolution on the Pahalgam attack avoided mentioning TRF, under Pakistan's and China's pressure. The US designation will hopefully make the process easier, though Pakistan and China will continue to oppose it. The Ministry of External Affairs has welcomed the US decision and noted that it reflects the cooperation between India and the US on counter-terrorism. Earlier this year, the US had extradited Tahawwur Rana who was part of the conspiracy behind the 2008 Mumbai the US may have sent a positive signal to India with its stance on TRF, its position is not without contradictions. It has not fully accepted India's position on the Pahalgam attack and Pakistan's role in promoting terrorism in the country. Washington has played host to Pakistan's army and air force chiefs in recent weeks and sought to equate Pakistan with India. .The US and most other countries have the tendency to look at terrorism through the prism of their national interest and geopolitical considerations. India will have to initiate stronger diplomatic efforts to make its case fully heard and accepted. It will also not go unnoticed that the terrorists behind the Pahalgam attack are yet to be arrested.
The Print
21 hours ago
- The Print
After The Resistance Front's terror designation, Lashkar is planning evil new war against India
Ganie, who dropped out of the Government High School in Ashmuji after finishing eighth grade, is the Lashkar's sole man standing in Kashmir—watching over a lean, mobile network designed to survive adversity—Indian intelligence sources believe. Each time, though, the man leading leading The Resistance Front—the terrorist group which claimed responsibility for the massacre on Baisaran Maidan, Pahalgam—has evaded police and army patrols. Last week, the TRF was designated an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Taiba by the United States Treasury Department, meeting a long-standing Indian demand. New Delhi: That morning, the gentle sting of September in the south Kashmir air, Khurshid Ahmad Ganie left for work as he always did, taking his bike from the small village of Maltalhama to the metal-shuttering factory he worked at in Dialgam. Lots of people claim to have seen him since, like some kind of evil spirit of the forest: In the Kund-Malwan forest of Kulgam, just in July, with two Pakistani terrorists; in the villages of Devpora-Padpawan in Shopian in April; in March, in Poshama, Kanjiullar, Adijen. Though India's security establishment has taken some emotional comfort in the terror designation, intelligence officials who have spoken to ThePrint say they are also painfully aware of how anaemic their understanding of the TRF-LeT's networks is. The digital communication systems used by jihadists in the mountains have proved hard to penetrate. There's little information, too, on the networks of supporters who sustain the TRF-LeT's combat units. Even though growing numbers of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) units have been pumped in, and Director-General of Police Nalin Prabhat has ordered aggressive combat operations in the high forests, not a single TRF-LeT terrorist has been killed or captured in the weeks since the massacre. Levels of violence, data from the independent South Asia Terrorism Portal shows, remain similar to those seen in 2011-2012, long before India began using military force to retaliate against cross-border terrorism. Also read: 1st words from Jaish after Op Sindoor—vengeance against India, and a warning to Pakistan The boss across the border Fifty-one years old, according to government records seen by ThePrint, and a laboratory technician with qualifications from Kerala, who for a long time ran the Bhat Lab, performing bloodwork on the main road in Majgund, Sajjad Gul's family hailed from the village of Ajas-Bandipora in northern Kashmir and migrated to Srinagar's Nawa Bazaar in 1972. Later, they purchased a home on Rose Avenue near the Hindustan Machine Tools factory—the picture of urban upward mobility. He was Educated at the prestigious Sri Partap College in Srinagar, and then at the Asia Pacific Institute of Management in Bengaluru, graduating in 1999. There is no record that he participated in terrorism-related activity during this period, according to a dossier maintained by police and accessed by ThePrint. Late in 2002, though, Gul was arrested along with a friend from Pattan, Mehra-ud-Din, on charges of handling Hawala funds for an operation to carry out bombings in New Delhi, according to authorities. He spent 5 years in prison, the latter part of it in Srinagar before being released in 2007. Again, in May 2016, he was arrested by police in Kashmir for the possession of two live grenades. Gul, however, succeeded in getting bail in March 2017, after prosecutors failed to produce a charge-sheet within the mandatory time. Then, in 2017, Gul acquired a passport using false credentials and travelled across the Wagah border to Pakistan. From there, he began running an incendiary blog called Kashmir Fight, which slandered and threatened journalists he described as pro-Indian Their most high-profile victim was newspaper editor Shuja'at Bukhari, who is believed to have been running an informal cross-Line of Control dialogue between Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen leadership in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. From 2018 to 2022, as Pakistan battled to have its name removed from a counter-terrorism sanctions list maintained by the multinational Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the TRF-LeT maintained a low profile. The organisation's social media activities all but disappeared, and few gatherings were held. Late in 2022, however, as the sanctions threat waned, the LeT-TRF again began holding public events across Pakistan. Last summer, Gul was suspected by Indian intelligence to have held a meeting with key TRF unit leaders in Keller forest, above Shopian. The precise nature of those instructions is unknown, but LeT-TRF units later staged a series of attacks, targeting both civilians and the Indian Army. At around the same time, ThePrint had revealed, posters began appearing in Pakistani villages, announcing public commemorations of jihadists killed in Kashmir. A continued terror push From his new home in Rawalpindi, Gul proved adept at organising low-grade terrorist attacks in Srinagar, enough to signal to his audience that the LeT-TRF hadn't given up the fight because of the FATF. A second-year commerce student at Srinagar's Gandhi Memorial College, teenager Mehran Shalla was accused of executing the gangster-style point-blank executions of, among others, small-time Srinagar gangster and alleged police informant, Meeran Ali, police sub-inspector Arshad Ahmad Mir, and school-teachers Supinder Kaur and Deepak Chand. In his spare time, Mehran worked for a courier firm, delivering packages across Srinagar's old city. Like many of his peers, Mehran had become swept up in the street battles which pitted young Kashmiris against police after the killing of jihadist youth icon Burhan Wani. He seemed, however, to have left that life behind, two of his family members said to ThePrint last year. Local commander Muhammad Abbas Sheikh—once a roadside tailor in the village of Qaimoh—was given charge of new TRF-LeT recruits like Mehran. Two of his other recruits, Manzoor Ahmad Mir and Arafat Ahmad Sheikh, both residents of Pulwama, were also teenage rioters and were killed along with Mehran, show police records. Though Abbas Sheikh had never received intelligence tradecraft or weapons training across the Line of Control, he came from a family with impeccable jihadist credentials: Ibrahim Sheikh, Abbas' oldest brother, had been killed in 1996 while serving with the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, while another brother, Ibrahim Sheikh, would die 10 years later while fighting in the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Naseema Banu, Abbas' oldest sister, had a son, Asif Sheikh, who was killed in 2008; Tauseef Sheikh, another sister, also joined the Lashkar, according to a police dossier maintained on Abbas Sheikh. Abbas Sheikh was killed by police in August 2021, and the network was taken over by his lieutenant, Basit Dar. The 2005-born Basit Dar had also served time in jail for his role in the violence in 2016, and then ranked a small cooking-utensil store in the village of Redwani Payeen, near Kulgam. Educated at the Government Middle School in Redwani, Basit had dropped out of school after 8th grade. He would be killed, in his turn, in 2024—leaving Khurshid Ahmad Ganie in charge. Lashkar's political strategy Tight control of operations is maintained, though, by senior Lashkar operatives housed in Pakistan. The top military commander in charge of Kashmir, Indian intelligence officials believe, is Sajid Saifullah Jatt—also known by the nickname 'Sajid Langda' (or Lame Sajid). A native of the village of Changa Manga near Kasur, in Pakistan's Punjab province, Sajid served in Kashmir from 2005-2007, and married a Kulgam woman, Shabbira Kuchay. The couple's son, Umar Raja Afaq—just an infant when his parents fled Kashmir through Nepal to Pakistan—continues to live with his maternal grandparents near Kulgam. Though he visited his parents' home in 2009, he returned, evidently uncomfortable in the Punjabi-speaking milieu. Lashkar leaders—using the name of its political proxy, the Pakistan Milli Muslim League, or Pakistan National Muslim League—had been regularly giving speeches promising violence against India even before the Baisaran Maidan attacks, ThePrint had reported. Following the 4-day war in May, Lashkar commanders like Faisal Nadeem and Abdul Rauf had made repeated public appearances. The Lashkar's strategy appears to be to rebuild the political conditions created a decade ago. Lashkar jihad commanders, like Sajid, had capitalised on a growing Islamist political current. In 2006, protestors targeted an alleged Srinagar sex-work ring, claiming it had been propped up by the Indian military. Then, the next year, the rape and murder of a Kashmir teenager provided Islamists with an opportunity to campaign against migrant workers, alleging they were part of an Indian plot to bring demographic change. Early in 2008, an Anantnag schoolteacher was also attacked after a video of a group of his students dancing to pop music was circulated. In 2008, these mobilisations exploded, after the grant of land-use rights to the Amarnath shrine. Islamist patriarch Syed Ali Shah Geelani claimed there was a conspiracy to settle Hindus in the region. 'I caution my nation,' he reportedly warned, 'that if we don't wake up in time, India and its stooges will succeed and we will be displaced'. Even though Sajid had fled Kashmir, his successors grew into cult figures, operating unchallenged in rural areas. The burial of Bahawalpur-born Abdul Rehman, also known as Abu Qasim, drew tens of thousands; two villages fought pitched battles for the honour of burying him. His successor, Abu Dujanah—like Sajid, married to a local woman, Rukayyah Dar—appeared at the 2016 funeral of jihadist social-media icon Burhan Wani, to ecstatic applause. This time, intelligence sources say, the Lashkar is banking on political tensions building up over the Government of India delaying the restoration of statehood, which the jihadists hope will precipitate a crisis between young people and the state. As this process unfolds, highly trained Lashkar operatives—many the highly-skilled veterans of battles against North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan—will continue to harry Indian forces in the mountains of the Pir Panjal, occasionally staging strikes to mount pressure on the political system. Even though India has made significant progress in integrating Kashmir with the wider national milieu, deep theocratic currents still run through the society. In 1925, Sayyed Hussain Shah Batku, a Delhi seminary student carried the Lashkar's foundational Ahl-e-Hadith sect to Kashmir in 1925, denouncing key practices of mainstream Islam in the State, such as the worship of shrines and veneration of relics, according to historian Chitralekha Zutshi's book titled Languages of Belonging. Along with his followers Anwar Shah Shopiani, Ghulam Nabi Mubaraki and Sabzar Khan, Batku attacked traditionalists for following practices tainted by their Hindu heritage, like the recitation of litanies before Namaaz. 'Look,' one senior Home Ministry official points out, 'you can't defeat terrorists by lobbing missiles once in a while, as the Americans learned in Afghanistan and Iraq. You have to be on the ground, armed with deep knowledge of the communities in which you are operating. And we just don't have that today.' 'Ever since the Jammu and Kashmir Police cadre was merged with the Union Territory cadre,' one senior official said, 'we haven't really been able to develop a pool of young officers who are committed to long years of counter-terrorism work. The rank-and-file believe their Indian Police Service commanders will float in and out of the state, and thus don't build the deep personal ties that are necessary for sustained intelligence work.' (Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri) Also read: Lashkar's renewed blossoming shows war hasn't coerced Pakistan Army into giving up on Kashmir
NDTV
a day ago
- NDTV
Trump, India, Pahalgam: When Terrorists Are Easier To Deal With Than Tariffs
Weeks after the Indian media engaged in a shrill diatribe against US President Donald Trump for claiming that he had ended the escalation between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor, the public sentiment against the US seems to be softening, thanks to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announcing that the State Department is going to designate the Terrorist Resistance Front (TRF) as a terrorist organisation, with a specific reference to the Pahalgam attack. That's a handshake of no mean order, especially after a series of western 'analysts' had desired 'proof' of the outfit's involvement in the attack. All this, of course, occurs in parallel with Trump apparently threatening a 100% secondary tariff on anyone who trades with Russia. But hold on. That is a reference to a proposed legislation supported by both political parties, which demands that 500% tariffs be levied on states trading with Russia - India included. So, the 'tariff man' is being outpaced by his own Congress. Things are not always what they seem. TRF Gets A Handle First, the designation of the TRF as a 'Specially Designated Global Terrorist' has been welcomed by Foreign Minister Jaishankar as a "strong affirmation of Indo-US Counter terrorism cooperation", as indeed it is. Earlier, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had stated that India's efforts at the United Nations to get a similar listing had been blocked by Pakistan, and even a reference to it removed from a press statement by the Security Council on Pahalgam. So, the US move is not something to be set aside lightly. The TRF is an interesting entity. It announced its presence on encrypted platform Telegram after the abrogation of Article 370 and when the Lashkar-e-Taiba took a back seat due to pressure from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The TRF's name and imagery seems carefully chosen to avoid any "radical" religious flavour, as also to position itself as indigenous. But a series of attacks it has claimed, including against Makhan Lal Bindroo, a popular owner of a medical shop, as well as those against Sikh and Hindu schoolteachers, were clearly aimed at creating communal tensions. The outfit also threatened journalists and released 'lists' of those it was prepared to kill. Notably, the TRF was the first terrorist group to launch a twin drone attack, on the Jammu air base in 2021. In the Pahalgam incident, the group again claimed the attack on Telegram but back-tracked three days later as it became apparent that India was on the warpath and that the UN was getting ready to release a resolution. Unlike the LeT, the leadership of the TRF is diffused back in Pakistan, and their 'assets' are unknown. But their leaders in Pakistan have known and long-time Lashkar affiliations. One of them, Abu Qatal, who was shot in March this year in Jhelum, uses the same infiltration routes and is part of the United Jihad Council. So, if it walks, talks and looks like the LeT, it should be the LeT. The designation there is uncomfortable business for Rawalpindi - the now-famous 'lunch' of Field Marshal Asim Munir with Trump notwithstanding. Working Groups Are Working Hard Now consider this. Just days earlier, on July 16, the Wavelength Forum held in New Delhi brought together Quad partners to strengthen subsea cable connectivity and resilience across the Indo-Pacific region. Organised under the US State Department's 'CABLES' programme, it highlighted the critical role of subsea cables in supporting the global digital economy and the importance of using trusted vendors for construction, maintenance, and repair. That underlined India's growing importance as a digital hub accounting for some 20% of global internet traffic, and the common concerns of members. This delivered on the Quad foreign ministers' joint statement, which itself was short and crisp, unlike the usual long-winded and fuzzy documents earlier. It announced the first Quad Critical Minerals Initiative, the first Quad Indo-Pacific Logistics Network field training exercise, and a Quad Ports of the Future Partnership in the works. Separately, a read-out of the meeting between Foreign Minister Jaishankar and Defence Secretary Peter Hegseth was rich in content, noting 'dangers of aggression in the 'Asia Pacific' (a rather surprising nomenclature). Coming up is the signing of the next 10 Year Defense Framework, and progress on advanced technology policy reviews, which will take forward the landmark INDUS-X which has brought together innovators to US shores, as well as the launch of the Autonomous Systems Industry Alliance (ASIA), where our own innovators are racing ahead. Earlier, even as Operation Sindoor was unfolding, the Quad was holding a tabletop logistic exercise in Hawaii, while a joint working group on Aircraft Carrier Technology cooperation was held in May even as the operations wound down. In sum, there are more areas of cooperation that can be listed easily. And that's an ongoing process, set in place years ago, with the US administration showing every inclination to push all of this harder and faster. That Public Glitch Now consider the brouhaha on tariffs, which are announced with much fanfare even as a trade deal is being hinted at. That is not going to be easy as Trump wants access to agriculture, a sensitive area of Indian politicians and a huge voter base. True also that a bill sponsored by Senator Lindsey Graham, widely credited with urging a change of heart to Pakistan under Imran Khan, has sponsored a bill calling for the President to "increase the rate of duty on all goods and services imported into the United States from countries that knowingly engage in the exchange of Russian-origin uranium and petroleum products to at least 500% relative to the value of such goods and services; that's the Trump administration's effort to get Russia to stop a wasteful and vicious war". In Sum... Much can be said about this pointless arm-twisting of countries like India, which did not start the war and have their own populations to think of in terms of inflation from rising oil prices. But the point is, relations between countries are not one composite whole. One may differ violently with one issue even while cooperating closely on another. True, with the Trump administration, there is a deliberate public confrontation in policy, but bureaucracies work quietly behind the scenes on sorting out issues with a country that is otherwise a 'Major Defence Partner', which for the first time, is becoming a two-way street. In other words, it is profitable for US companies to work here in this and other fields. It's a slow journey, but it's got to a place where a certain velocity has been achieved. After all, this is a path undertaken since at least George W Bush's days. The dangers of Trump linking trade with almost everything else persists - like pushing Apple to set up shop elsewhere - but the core relationship is in place. That, in turn, is based on one unchanging principle of US policy; which is never to allow another country to overtake it. As China grows in absolute terms, that is one fundamental that will determine relations with India. The danger is that there are also those in Washington who see India as growing too fast for comfort. US bureaucracy would ideally like all 'partners' to just roll over and play dead. Delhi is hardly in that league, and is a hitch that needs careful manoeuvring. Think of a certain 'warming' of relations with China recently. It's a dangerous game, but it seems the present dispensation seems confident. There are squalls ahead. Meanwhile, prepare to open all sluices as the Quad summit comes up.
