NIA launches separate probe into TRF funding

The probe comes amid a manhunt for three Pakistani terrorists that executed the Pahalgam attack and the arrest of two locals who gave them shelter.

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) investigating the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack has launched a separate, “larger conspiracy” probe into the funding of The Resistance Front (TRF) --seen as a proxy outfit of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)-- that initially claimed responsibility for the massacre in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 25 tourists and a local pony guide, people familiar with the development said on Wednesday.

The probe comes amid a manhunt for three Pakistani terrorists that executed the Pahalgam attack and the arrest of two locals who gave them shelter. (PTI)

The probe comes amid a manhunt for three Pakistani terrorists that executed the attack and the arrest of two locals who gave them shelter.

TRF claimed responsibility within hours of the Pahalgam terror attack but later tried to disassociate itself from the ghastly killings as global condemnation mounted. Indian agencies have said TRF is nothing but a name Pakistan uses for LeT, designated as a terrorist outfit by the United Nations, to avoid international sanctions.

The new investigation pertains to the activities of a Handwara resident, identified as Shafat Wani, who was receiving funds from TRF leaders from across the border, which he used to promote terrorist activities in India, said an officer, who asked not to be named. “A case under sections 13, 17 and 18 of the unlawful activities prevention act (UAPA) — which deals with terrorist and related funding activities — has been registered in the matter and a thorough investigation is on,” the officer said.

While recommending a NIA probe in the matter last month, the Union home ministry said that there was a “need to unearth the larger conspiracy” as such funding of the Pakistan-based TRF “has grave national and international ramifications”, a second officer said.

To be sure, the new probe is separate from the NIA’s Pahalgam investigation and it is not known yet if any of Wani’s funding for TRF from Pakistan was used forthe April 22 attack. Agency officials didn’t disclose the amount of funds Wani received from across the border, the period of funding or his past association with Lashkar-e-Taiba or any other outfit, saying, “investigation is currently going on”.

The federal agency on Sunday arrested two men from Pahalgam — Parvaiz Ahmad Jothar and Bashir Ahmad Jothar — who allegedly harboured the three Pakistani attackers and provided them with food. They are currently being interrogated after a five-day custody remand. Parvaiz and Bashir had knowingly harboured the three armed terrorists at a seasonal dhok (hut) at Hill Park before the attack, the agency said on Sunday.

”The two men had provided food, shelter and logistical support to the terrorists who selectively killed the tourists on the basis of their religious identity,” the agency said.

The duo has identified the three Pakistani terrorists, the agency said, but NIA did not confirmed if the attackers are the ones whose sketches were released by the Jammu and Kashmir police on April 24.

India responded to the terror attack with Operation Sindoor on May 7, bombing nine terrorist camps across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in pre-dawn strikes that killed at least 100 militants. The operation sparked four days of cross-border fighting involving fighter jets, missiles and artillery.

Over the last three years, TRF has claimed responsibility for several attacks on civilians including migrant workers and Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu and Kashmir . Security agencies have said the outfit was also behind the twin-drone attacks on the Jammu Indian Air Force (IAF) station in June 2021.

Indian agencies have assessed that TRF was propped by Pakistan after the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, to avoid scrutiny from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The ministry of home affairs (MHA) banned it in January 2023 under the UAPA. Its commander, Sajjad Gul, was also declared an individual terrorist in 2022.

“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. TRF 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 said in its notification in January 2023.

Officials said that LeT and its proxy is being helped by overground workers (OGWs) not only in the Valley but in the Jammu region as well, which has seen a series of attacks on civilians since 2021.