Little-known ISI-backed terrorist group surfaces in Kashmir Valley

Amidst COVID-19 pandemic, a hitherto little-known terrorist organization – ‘The Resistance Front’ (TRF) – has surfaced on the terror map of Kashmir valley. Intelligence inputs suggest that the newly formed ‘TRF’ was formed by Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) this year and some terrorists from Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen may have joined it.

On April 5, a violent gun battle erupted along the Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district, in which five Army personnel were martyred and an equal number of infiltrating terrorists were killed. The soldiers belonged to the elite 4 Para — the unit which undertook the 2016 cross-LoC ‘surgical strikes’ in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK). Little known TRF claimed responsibility for the attack.

On April 18, another deadly attack was carried out by the terrorists in the apple town of the Sopore area of Baramulla district of north Kashmir. In this attack, three para-military CRPF were killed and two got injured. Once again, TRF claimed responsibility for the attack.  On April 27, three terrorists were killed in Lower Munda area of Qazigund in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district reportedly belonged to the TRF.

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TRF module busted

On March 23, J&K police said it busted the outfit’s first-ever module and recovered a consignment of weapons in Kupwara. Security forces have busted a terror module in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir arresting six suspected militants and recovering a large cache of arms and ammunition.

The six were members of ‘The Resistance Front’, a newly formed terrorist outfit believed to be a shadow group of the LeT and HM were arrested in an operation spreading from Sopore in Baramulla district to Keran in Kupwara district near the Line of Control, the officials said then.

All the teams (SF) reached the spot covertly and apprehended four people identified as Ahtisham Farooq Malik, Shafqat Ali Tagoo, Musaib Hassan Bhat and Nisar Ahmad Ganai — all residents of Sopore. During questioning, they revealed that they were working under a Pakistan-based man who goes by the name ‘Andrew Jones’ on Telegram messenger.

“These four were the main handlers deputed by ‘Andrew Jones’ for recruiting local youth for terrorist activities in Kashmir, particularly in North Kashmir… their job was to instigate local youth to join terrorist ranks,” they said. Their questioning led to the arrest of two more suspects hailing from Keran who have been identified as Kabeer Lone and Sharafat Ahmad Khan.

Khan during questioning disclosed that he along with two other people from Keran received a consignment of arms and ammunition from across the LoC and dumped it near Cobra Post Keran Kupwara. A team of police officials raided the spot and recovered huge cache of arms weapons and ammunition. Eight AK rifles, 25 AK magazines, 10 pistols, more than 1,000 AK and pistol rounds, 89 hand grenades and 21 detonator fuses were recovered from the six militants, officials said.

The arrest of the terrorists and their over ground workers and recovery of weapons and explosives has foiled the designs of their masters to revive terrorism in north Kashmir and unleash a fresh wave of violence, they said.

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Don't attack J&K Police

Recently a purported statement of TRF surfaced on social media asking the Hizbul not to target J&K police personnel as “they are our own people and we cannot fight occupational forces without their support.” The statement claimed that one of the senior-most Hizbul commanders in Kashmir, Abass Sheikh, has left Hizbul “because he also does not agree with killing Kashmir police and civilians.”

“Now, Abass bhai is with us and we will fight with anyone who kills or hurts any Kashmiri. This is a final warning to Hizbul. Don’t force us to take the hard route. No warning now onwards, only action,” it added.

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Home-grown terror character

An Army officer while wishing anonymity said that the TRF is a joint shadow group of the LeT and Hizbul Mujahidin. “TRF was created by ISI to give their cross-border terrorism in Kashmir more ‘home-grown terror character because of the pressure from Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global watchdog for terror-funding,” he said

While citing an example, the officer said in the early 2000s when the LeT would carry out attacks in Kashmir the responsibility would be taken by ‘Save Kashmir Movement’ “which was a shadow outfit then.” The past few weeks have not only witnessed an increase in infiltration attempts along LoC, but encounters between terrorists and security forces, civilian killing and abduction attempts of J&K policemen are also on the rise.

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(PTI Photo for representation)