New Delhi, 30 July

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 22 April 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).

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, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The Pakistan foreign minister boasted in the Pakistan National Assembly about forcing the removal of references to TRF in the UNSC press statement condemning the Pahalgam attack, they recalled.

The mention of the TRF in the MT report is how the world views Pakistan's "lies and deceitful narrative", the people said on condition of anonymity.

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 26 April 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.

"Another member state said the attack was carried out by TRF, which was synonymous with LeT. One member state rejected these views and said that LeT was defunct," it said.

The member state which claimed that LeT was defunct largely appears to be Pakistan.

The UNSC's 1267 Sanctions Committee is tasked to implement sanctions against terrorists, terror groups, and entities.

The people cited above said Pakistan's strategy 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 and give an indigenous appearance to its terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir -- now stands "punctured".

This also marks the first mention of the LeT and Pakistan-based terror groups in the report since 2019.

"The inclusion of TRF in the MT report despite Pakistan's efforts for its removal highlights Pakistan's undeniable involvement in fomenting terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir," one of the people cited above said.

It also attests to our credibility in the UN on the counter-terror front, the person said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said in the Lok Sabha that the three terrorists killed in Operation Mahadev in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday were those who carried out the Pahalgam strike.