U.S. designates Pakistani group’s offshoot as ‘terrorist’ over Pahalgam attack

The U.S. government designated The Resistance Front, considered an offshoot of the Pakistani extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, as a “foreign terrorist organization” over the Pahalgam attack in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 26 people, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement on Thursday (July 17, 2025). The Resistance Front initially took responsibility for the attack in Pahalgam before denying it days later.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, listed as a “foreign terrorist organization” by the United States, is a terror group accused of plotting attacks in India and in the West, including the three-day deadly assault on Mumbai in November 2008. TRF’s designation by Washington as a “foreign terrorist organization” and “specially designated global terrorist” enforced President Donald Trump’s “call for justice for the Pahalgam attack,” Mr. Rubio said.

Mr. Rubio called TRF a “front and proxy” for Lashkar-e-Taiba. It is considered an offshoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, a Delhi-based think tank. TRF emerged in 2019.

The attack sparked heavy fighting between nuclear-armed Asian neighbours India and Pakistan in the latest escalation of a decades-old rivalry. Islamabad denied responsibility while calling for a neutral investigation. Washington condemned the attack but did not directly blame Pakistan.

On May 7, the Indian Armed Forces launched ‘Operation Sindoor’, hitting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan, setting off an exchange of attacks between the two countries by fighter jets, missiles, drones, and artillery until a ceasefire on May 10.