New Delhi, India – Even if the news of the deadliest attack on the tourists from cashmere to Indian administration in decades has filtered on social media platforms and television screens, a message appeared on telegram cats.
The resistance front (TRF), an unknowing armed group that emerged in the region in 2019, claimed responsibility for the attack in which at least 26 tourists were killed and more than a dozen others were injured on Tuesday.
The armed rebels, which are fighting for the secession of cashmere from India, had largely spared tourists from their attacks in recent years. Tuesday’s killings changed this.
But what is the TRF and what influence does in cashmere? And what is at stake for the Indian administration at cashmere now?
What happened Tuesday?
During a pleasant sunny afternoon in the Baisaran meadow of the city of Pahalgam in cashmere, the tourists were attacked by armed men who emerged from a neighboring forest.
Men armed with automatic rifles fired at least 26 dead tourists and injured several others. All those who are killed were men.
Indian Minister of India, Amit Shah, has reached Srinagar, the summer capital of the contested region, while condolences flocked to world leaders, notably US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on social networks that “those behind this odious act will be brought to justice … They will not be spared!”
At that time, TRF had claimed the responsibility of the attack, even if the armed attackers who carried out the murders remained on the run.
What is TRF?
In a message that appeared on Telegram, TRF opposed the granting of residence permit to “foreigners”, which, according to criticism, could help India change the demography of the contested region. “Consequently, violence will be directed to those who try to settle illegally,” he said.
Although the targets of the attack are tourists – and not newly arrived residents making the cashmere their home – the group’s choice of telegram to claim responsibility did not surprise security officials.
TRF is always, sometimes, called “the virtual forehead” inside the safety apparatus in cashmere, because this is how it started.
After the Indian government unilaterally revoked the partial autonomy of cashmere in August 2019 and imposed a repression of several months, the group first took shape by starting messaging on social networks. In the reorganization of cashmere, the government has also extended the status of domicile, which allows the rights of land possession and access to the employment quotas sponsored by the government, to non -local – the alleged justification of the attack by Pahalgam.
The name of the resistance front is a rupture of traditional rebel groups in cashmere, most of which bear Islamic names. What, according to Indian intelligence agencies, aimed to project “a neutral character, with” resistance “in name focused on cashmere nationalism,” said a police officer, who worked on cases involving armed groups for almost a decade, asking for anonymity.
However, Indian officials have always argued that, in reality, the TRF is a ramification – or simply a front – from Lashkar -E -Taiba, an armed group based in Pakistan. India claims that Pakistan supports armed rebellion to cashmere, an accusation refused by Islamabad. Pakistan says that it only provides diplomatic and moral support to the cashmere people. He also condemned the attack on tourists in Pahalgam.
Some Indian officials said they believed that Tuesday’s attack could have been the work of the Lashkar-E-Taiba, with the responsibility of Muddy India on the murders.
Did the tank conduct attacks in the past?
By 2020, the group began to take responsibility for minor attacks, including targeted killings of people. His recruits were made up of combatants of an amalgam of Splinter rebel groups. Since then, Indian security agencies have erupted several groups of TRF fighters.
But the group has survived and grew up.
In 2022, a majority of armed fighters killed during Kashmir shootings were affiliated with TRF, according to the government archives. TRF members were increasingly using light weapons such as pistols to perform targeted murders, including those of retired security staff and people accused of being informants.
The group also made the headlines that year after having appointed cashmiri journalists on a “list of traitor strokes” to have allegedly collutial with the Indian state. At least five of the appointed journalists resigned immediately because there is a story of such attacks. Shujaat Bukhari, an eminent cashmere journalist and editor -in -chief of the rising publication of Cashmere, was murdered on June 14, 2018 outside his office in Srinagar. The cashmere police attributed the murder to the Lashkar-E-Taiba.
In June 2024, TRF also claimed responsibility for an attack on a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims, killing at least nine people and injuring 33, in the Rasi zone of Jammu. The bus had plunged into a throat during the attack.
How is TRF different?
While TRF has made its mark with its deadly attacks, it also used a mixture of old and new strategies. His English name has stood out, as is his use of social media. But in other respects, it was based on more traditional techniques.
Before the arrival of TRF, the Kashmir rebel commanders had, since 2014, adopted more public figures. Their groups would publish videos on the social networks of their commanders walking with casualness in apple orchards, playing cricket or cycling in Srinagar. This awareness of social media has led to an increase in recruitment. Among the commanders who adopted this method were Burhan Wani, whose murder in July 2016 led to an uprising, during which more than 100 civilians were killed during street demonstrations.
But after the repression of 2019, this approach no longer worked. Trf Fighters, the new arrivals on the stage, returned for proven means. “The faces were again hidden; the number of attacks has dropped, but the intensity has become clearer,” said the policeman who asked for anonymity.
Under the direction of Mohammad Abbas Sheikh, one of the most veterans in cashmere – he would have joined the rebellion in 1996 – the group concentrated its attacks against Srinagar.
After his murder in 2021, and the murders of many other armed rebels during the following year, TRF withdrew with his fighters in the jungles higher in the mountains, said a central intelligence manager under the cover of anonymity.
In January 2023, the Indian government declared TRF a “terrorist organization”, citing the recruitment of rebels and the smuggling of weapons from Pakistan to Kashmir.
While more and more TRF fighters were killed by security agencies, their number has decreased. The rebels, according to police and intelligence officials, were well trained but remained largely in their hiding places at high altitude.
What does Modi Kashmir policy mean?
However, if the Indian security and intelligence agencies were caught by the attack, some experts think that it is the result of the holes in the Modi government’s cashmere policy.
Modi and the Minister of the Interior Shah, who are responsible for the law and the order and widely considered as the deputy of Modi, have repeatedly made allegations of “normality” in cashmere since the semi-autonomous status of the region was revoked in 2019.
It is this insurance and the promotion of tourism by the Indian government that led Kalash Sethi to cashmere this summer with his family. Now he frantically seeks to leave the region as soon as possible.
“We were in Pahalgam just two days ago, in the same place where the attack occurred,” said Sethi, who is Jamnagar in the Western state of Gujarat, to Al Jazeera de Srinagar. “I can’t tell you how frightened I’m right now.” I just want to get my family out. ”
On Wednesday, Panic seized the visit and travel operators while visitors rushed to cancel their reservations and go home. Traffic blocked roads to Srinagar airport, and prices to get out of cashmere increased by more than 300%.
“There is no normality in cashmere. And this story of” normality “is the most unhappy thing about the cashmere policy of this government,” said Ajai Sahni, executive director of Terrorism in South Asia, a platform that follows and analyzes armed attacks in South Asia.
“First, zero activism in cashmere is an impossible objective to achieve, at least in the absence of a political solution within the State,” said Sahni. “Second, the” narrative of normality “creates a situation where groups are encouraged to design attacks.” It is, he said, because they know that “even if a small attack occurs, it is no longer normal”.
In addition to occasional attacks, the rebel groups had so far spared the tourism industry, added Sahni. “This has also led to a level of convenience, perhaps, in the security apparatus,” he said, adding that “this is a very steep climbing from TRF”.
Tuesday evening, when the dead and the injured were brought back to horseback and military vehicles, the police had sealed the seaside resort of Pahalgam. Several regions of cashmere, including Srinagar, attended a closure after the associations of traders and political parties called for collective mourning.
Raul, who works in the hotel sector in Pahalgam and asked that he would be identified by his first name only, said that he was worried about the future. “There will again be repression and the increased presence of armed forces in the region,” he said. “Everyone, my clients, just wants to get out of cashmere.”
