The ministry of house affairs (MHA) on Thursday declared The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a terrorist organisation and banned it beneath the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

TRF was behind a majority of assaults on civilians, together with Kashmiri Pandits and migrant staff in addition to safety forces in Kashmir, for the previous couple of years.

TRF’s title has been added to the banned outfit’s listing, together with LeT itself, beneath the primary schedule of UAPA, in keeping with a notification issued on Thursday.

“The Resistance Front came into existence in the year 2019 as a proxy outfit of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a proscribed terrorist organisation listed at serial number 5 of the first schedule under the UAPA,” a notification issued by the MHA on said.

TRF, the notification added, “is recruiting youth through online medium for furtherance of terrorist activities” and “has 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”.

The MHA stated the LeT proxy is “involved in psychological operations on social media platforms for inciting people of Jammu and Kashmir to join terrorist outfits against Indian state”.

TRF commander – Sajjad Gul – has already been declared a delegated terrorist by the Indian authorities.

Asserting that the actions of TRF are detrimental to the nationwide safety and sovereignty of India, the MHA stated, “A large number of cases have been registered against the members/associates of TRF relating to the planning of killings of security force personnel and innocent civilians of Jammu and Kashmir, co-coordinating and transporting weapons to support proscribed terrorist organisation, terror attack on security forces, killing of innocent persons, etc.”

An offshoot of Hafiz Saeed-led LeT, TRF was shaped by the previous in collaboration with the Pakistan Army and the ISI in 2019 in response to India’s abrogation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir that gave considerably particular standing to Jammu and Kashmir.

The new outfit was shaped with a function to take care of believable deniability to Pakistan for assaults in India whereas it was beneath the scrutiny of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), in keeping with a senior intelligence official.

The outfit, headed by TRF commander Sheikh Sajjad Gul, has since been concerned in a number of assaults on Kashmiri Pandits, migrant staff, and safety forces aside from an assault on Jammu Indian Air Force (IAF) camp final 12 months, utilizing drones to smuggle arms and utilizing “hybrid” terrorists to hold out assaults. Hybrid terrorists, in keeping with an officer, are those who aren’t precisely extremely educated, and normally do overground work however may do a hit-and-run job utilizing small weapons.

Union house minister Amit Shah, in a gathering final month with high officers in Kashmir and on the Centre, had sought strict motion towards TRF and different outfits within the Valley.