It was not difficult for international observers to follow the events surrounding the terrorist attack on a group of tourists inPahalgamon April 22, 2025. The attackers opened fire in a meadow, asking every tourist about their faith and executing Hindu victims on the spot. In total, twenty-six people lost their lives during this assault – carried out with professional weaponry and careful planning.
Much trickier to understand – and something that the Pahalgam attack compels us to think about – is the underlying architecture of this kind of attack. Who created and maintained this network? Who funded and instructed these individuals? Why does the international community continue to fail at holding anyone accountable for such acts?
Masked identity: the case of The Resistance Front
The group that executed the attack in Kashmir was called TRF, short for The Resistance Front. As opposed to Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen, this name carries a Kashmiri identity. This was intended. According to the NIA’s 1,597-page chargesheet filed in December 2025, TRF is an LT proxy group “revealed in 2019 to insulate Pakistan from international condemnation, especially from the Financial Action Task Force, by masking its operations in Kashmir as those of a locally-based group”. The rebranding had nothing to do with ideology, and everything to do with disguise.
On the same day as the attack, as well as the day after it occurred, TRF claimed responsibility for the murders. However, four days later, the group retracted their previous statement, claiming that their announcement was “a result of cyber intrusion”. Most of the analysts took it with a grain of salt – there were enough indicators of responsibility.
The NIA chargesheet removed any doubts: Faisal Jatt alias Suleman Shah, Habeeb Tahir alias Jibran, and Hamza Afghani, all citizens of Pakistan belonging to LeT’s proscribed network, were responsible for the killings. All three were killed by Indian Army forces during the Operation Mahadev raid in Dachigam forests, on July 29, 2025, – ninety-nine days since the assault.
NIA’s chargesheets name LeT commander Sajid Jatt (real name – Habibullah Malik, citizen of Pakistan’s Kasur district) as the leading culprit of the crime – between 2023 and 2025, he organized and conducted at least four major terrorist attacks. He himself escaped and continues his work today.
The pattern of Pakistan’s reaction to such events has become almost standard. Islamabad refused to comment on any possible connection to the attack, stating that the event had nothing to do with Pakistan and should be viewed as an issue concerning India itself. Foreign Ministry officials sent condolences about the loss of life among “tourists” without even admitting that these terrorists were indeed citizens of Pakistan, trained by one of their organisations.
According to analysts, this is the definition of hybrid warfare. By using non-state proxies to strike the enemy, the state avoids getting involved in a full-scale conflict, yet gains a lot of benefit. Thus, through the intermediary role of TRF, Pakistan gets the effect of the terrorist attack and the right to pretend that the latter occurred without the government’s participation.
The threshold set by international law for accountability of the state is incredibly high; there should be documentary proof that can show the connection between the act and state sponsorship. Therefore, Pakistan is very aware of how the international law enforcement works, and tries to take advantage of it whenever they can.
Source: India Latest News, Breaking News Today, Top News Headlines | Times Now
