A recent United Nations Security Council (UNSC) report has officially implicated The Resistance Front (TRF) in the deadly Pahalgam terror attack that occurred on April 22 in Jammu and Kashmir. This marks the first time the TRF, a proxy group of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), has been named in a formal UN document. The report explicitly cites TRF's claim of responsibility for the attack, which resulted in the death of 26 people.

The UNSC report is considered a significant diplomatic victory for India, especially since Pakistan has been actively trying to dissociate itself from the TRF and other terror groups operating on its soil. According to sources, the report explicitly recorded the involvement of TRF, a proxy outfit of LeT, in the Pahalgam terror attack. The report also highlights the links between TRF and LeT.

The report by the UNSC's Monitoring Team notes that TRF claimed responsibility for the attack immediately after it occurred, even publishing a photograph of the attack site. The group repeated its claim the following day, but retracted it on April 26. Despite the retraction, the report includes information from member states that the attack could not have happened without the support of LeT. One member state stated that TRF and LeT were essentially the same.

The mention of TRF's claim of responsibility for the terror attack in a UNSC document is significant. Earlier, Pakistan had blocked any reference to the TRF in a UNSC statement condemning the killings. Pakistan's foreign minister even boasted about this "diplomatic success". This report directly contradicts that claim and restores the reference to TRF in the official UN record.

India had provided detailed input on TRF and other Pakistan-sponsored terror proxies to the Monitoring Team since December 2023. In 2024, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) provided inputs to the team on the activities of the TRF and its linkages to LeT. An MEA-led delegation briefed the Monitoring Team and other senior UN officials in New York in May 2024 and shared a dossier on TRF.

The United States designated TRF as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). Highlighting TRF's involvement in multiple attacks against India, including the Pahalgam attack, the State Department said the decision reflected the commitment to protecting US national security, countering terrorism. The Resistance Front was formed in 2019 as a proxy of Lashkar-e-Taiba and was banned by India in 2023.