UNSC report names TRF for Pahalgam attack in win for India

A UN Security Council report on Wednesday, for the first time, named Pakistan-based The Resistance Front (TRF) for its alleged role in the Pahalgam terror attack, in a boost to India’s diplomatic drive against cross-border terrorism.

TRF had twice claimed responsibility for the April 22 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir and even published a photograph of the attack site, the UN Security Council’s sanctions Monitoring Team (MT) noted in its report.

Pakistan had tried hard to safeguard TRF.

“The attack was claimed that same day (April 22) by The Resistance Front (TRF), who in parallel published a photograph of the attack site. The claim of responsibility was repeated the following day. On April 26, however, TRF retracted their claim. There was no further communication from TRF, and no other group claimed responsibility,” the MT said in its 36th report on ISIL (Da’esh), AL Qaeda and associated entities.

“Regional relations remain fragile. There is a risk that terrorist groups may exploit these regional tensions,” it noted.

The report cited a member state as saying that “the attack could not have happened without Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) support, and that there was a relationship between LeT and TRF.”

“Another member state said that the attack was carried out by TRF, who was synonymous with LeT,” it said without naming the countries.

“One member state rejected these views and said LeT was defunct,” the MT report said.

This is the first mention of Pakistan-based terror groups in an UNSC report since 2019. It marks a significant diplomatic victory for India.

Earlier this month, the US had designated TRF as a ‘foreign terrorist organisation’ and ‘specially designated global terrorist’.

Following the Pahalgam attack, the UN Security Council had issued a statement on April 25, calling for accountability for the perpetrators. However, it did not name TRF as Pakistan opposed its inclusion. Pakistan is a non-permanent member of the UNSC for 2025-26 term.

UNSC set to adopt report

The current development is significant as all decisions of the UNSC 1267 Sanctions Committee, including MT reports, are adopted by consensus by the members of the Security Council.

The mention of TRF in the MT report reflects “how the world views Pakistan’s lies and deceitful narrative,” said a foreign affairs expert who did not wish to be identified. “The foreign minister of Pakistan had earlier claimed in the Pakistan national assembly about forcing the removal of references to TRF in the UNSC press statement condemning the Pahalgam attack,” the person noted.