India inches closer to get TRF sanctioned as UN Security Council Monitoring Team flags Pahalgam attack

India is now one step closer to get The Resistance Front (TRF), the terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam attack, sanctioned at the United Nations (UN).

In its latest report released on Tuesday, the UN Security Council’s (UNSC) sanctions monitoring team flagged the TRF and the group’s role in the Pahalgam attack — terrorists killed 26 people on April 22 in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam.

The TRF is considered to be an offshoot of the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which has pursued terrorism against India for decades and carried out several attacks, including the Mumbai terrorist attacks of 2008 in which more than 150 people were killed.

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In the report, the UNSC sanctions monitoring report said that five terrorists carried out the attack in Pahalgam and the TRF claimed responsibility for the act and published a photo as well.

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The report said that one UNSC said that the attack could not have happened without LeT’s support and that there was a relationship between LeT and TRF. It reported another UNSC member as saying that the attack was carried out by TRF, which was synonymous with the LeT. A third UNSC member rejected these views and said the LeT was defunct.

Now that the UNSC monitoring committee has flagged the TRF in its report, the next step is its mention in the sanctions committee’s report, which will make the group’s designation just a matter of time, according to the view in New Delhi.

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India had briefed the UNSC on the TRF and Pahalgam attack in April and May. While the United States has designated the TRF as a terrorist organisation, China has consistently blocked efforts to get it sanctioned at the UNSC. As a permanent member, China has exercised its veto power and certain non-veto, procedural methods to hamper India’s efforts.

India considers TRF’s mention in UNSC report a victory

New Delhi is considering the TRF’s mention in the UNSC monitoring team’s report as a diplomatic achievement.

A source said that a UNSC report has flagged the TRF for the first time.

Notably, India had been briefing the UNSC about the TRF since 2023. Last year, India on two occasions briefed the UNSC on the TRF’s links to the LeT.

The paragraph on the TRF in the UNSC monitoring team’s report and the Pahalgam attack is the first part under the South Asia Section and the largest and it is in line with what India has been saying about the links between the TRF and the LeT and its support from Pakistan, the source said.

They said that it is notable as all decisions of the sanctions committee, including the finalising of monitoring committee reports, are adopted by consensus by UNSC members.

The inclusion of the TRF in the monitoring team’s report despite Pakistan’s efforts for its removal highlights Pakistan’s undeniable involvement in fomenting terrorism and attests to India’s credibility at the UN on the counter-terrorism front, they further said.