Centre declares The Resistance Front a terrorist organisation

Home Ministry says the TRF came into existence in 2019 as a proxy outfit of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a proscribed terrorist organisation

The Home Ministry has declared The Resistance Front (TRF), a front of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), as a terrorist organisation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). A gazette notification said the TRF came into existence in 2019 as a proxy outfit of the LeT, a proscribed terrorist organisation.

The Ministry said the organisation was recruiting youth through online medium for furtherance of terrorist activities and had been involved in carrying out propaganda on terror activities, recruitment of terrorists, infiltration of terrorists and smuggling of weapons and narcotics from Pakistan into Jammu and Kashmir.

It said the TRF was involved in “psychological operations on social media platforms for inciting people of Jammu and Kashmir to join terrorist outfits against Indian State.”

It further stated that Sheikh Sajjad Gul is a commander of the TRF and had been designated as a terrorist under the UAPA and the outfit’s activities were detrimental for the national security and sovereignty of India.

“A large number of cases have been registered against the members/associates of the TRF relating to planning of killings of security force personnel and innocent civilians of Jammu and Kashmir, co-coordinating and transporting weapons to support proscribed terrorist organisation, etc.,” the notification said.

It said the Central government believed that the TRF was involved in terrorism and it had committed and participated in various acts of terrorism in India and under Section 35 of the UAPA “in the First Schedule to the said Act, in serial number 5, after the words “Pasban-E-Ahle Hadis”, the words ‘The Resistance Front and all its manifestations and front organisations’ shall be inserted.”

The First Schedule of the UAPA contains the list of terrorist organisations.