Home Ministry declares PAFF, TRF as terrorist organisations as militancy spikes in Jammu province

Samaan Lateef

Srinagar, January 7

As militancy is spreading to relatively peaceful areas of Jammu province, the Ministry of Home Affairs banned the People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF) and The Resistance Front (TRF), which have been involved in major terror activities after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.

Home Ministry said that PAFF is a proxy outfit of Maulana Masood Azhar-led Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) while the TRF is the proxy outfit of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), which emerged in 2019 and targeted civilians.

“PAFF was involved in terror acts and is regularly issuing threats to Indian security forces, political leaders, civilians working in Jammu-Kashmir from other states and is involved, along with other organisations, in conspiring pro-actively physically and in social media to undertake violent terrorist acts and Jammu-Kashmir and other major cities in India,” the MHA notification said.

The TRF on Saturday warned of terror attacks on people whose names it has released on the “hit list” two days after it was declared as a banned organization by the Home Ministry.

The MHA said that TRF is recruiting youth through the online medium for the furtherance of terrorist activities, recruitment of terrorists, infiltration of terrorists and smuggling of weapons and narcotics from Pakistan into Jammu and Kashmir.

The MHA also designated Pakistan-based TRF commander Sheikh Sajjad Gul as a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 1967.

The government also designated Mohammed Amin alias Abu Khubaib, who belongs to Jammu and Kashmir but currently lives in Pakistan, as an individual terrorist.

Khubaib is acting as the launching commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba and is playing a vital role to revive and accelerate terrorist activities of LeT in the Jammu region, the MHA said.

He has been involved in coordinating terrorist attacks, supply of arms or weapons and explosives, and terror financing in Jammu and Kashmir from across the border.

Also, Arbaz Ahmad Mir, a Lashkar-e-Tobia operative who is currently based in Pakistan, has been designated as an “individual terrorist”. The MHA said Mir was the main accused in the targeted killing of Rajni Bala, a school teacher in Kulgam in May last year.

Both TRF and PAFF have been involved in multiple attacks including the killing of Kashmiri Pandits and migrant labourers while threatening journalists after the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35-A on August 5, 2019.

After the abrogation of Article 370, militant activities and smuggling of weapons through drones have increased in Jammu province.

Six civilians including two children were killed by the militants earlier this week in a targeted attack in the Rajouri district.