Washington [US], July 21 (ANI): US President Donald Trump has strongly backed his administration’s decision to designate The Resistance Front (TRF) as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO), calling it a deserved step against perpetrators of civilian killings in India.
The US House Foreign Affairs Committee Majority on Saturday said in a post on X, “President Trump calls it like it is. The Resistance Front is a foreign terrorist organisation and deserves the designation. When you butcher civilians, you don’t get a pass — you get JUSTICE.”
TRF, a proxy group of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), claimed responsibility for the deadly April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, that left 26 civilians dead and triggered a four-day military escalation between India and Pakistan.
India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar welcomed the US move, hailing it as a strong step in the global fight against terrorism and a reflection of deepening India–US counter-terrorism cooperation.
“Appreciate SecRubio and @StateDept for designating TRF, a Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) proxy, as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). It claimed responsibility for the April 22 Pahalgam attack. Zero tolerance for terrorism,” Jaishankar wrote on X.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a statement, said the designation was based on TRF’s direct role in the Pahalgam attack and its well-documented links to LeT, the group behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Rubio added that TRF has also been implicated in several attacks on Indian security forces in 2024.
The State Department described the Pahalgam incident as the deadliest civilian attack in India since the Mumbai massacre. The department further stressed that the action was consistent with the Trump administration’s long-standing counter-terrorism strategy and underscored Washington’s resolve to hold terrorist proxies accountable.
“This designation reinforces our message that there is zero tolerance for those who carry out or support terror against civilians,” Rubio said. (ANI)
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