Lashkar offshoot behind Pahalgam attack shifting base from Pak's Muridke: Sources

As the US designated The Resistance Front (TRF) — the outfit behind the Pahalgam terror attack — as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO), sources revealed to India Today TV that both Lashkar and its offshoot are shifting their headquarters from Muridke, Pakistan, to Bahawalpur, about 400 kilometres away.

At present, Indian intelligence agencies are monitoring the Pakistani Army’s move to co-locate the headquarters of the two terror organisations at the same location.

Founded in 2019 following the abrogation of Article 370, the Resistance Front has been propped up by Pakistan's information warfare machinery as a 'homegrown' insurgent outfit in Kashmir fighting for its independence. However, it acts as a proxy for Lashkar-e-Taiba and is merely a repackaged version of the globally proscribed terror organisation, said government sources.

The formation of TRF is a textbook example of Pakistan's longstanding modus operandi — rebranding terror outfits to escape international scrutiny and maintain plausible deniability, while continuing its strategy of cross-border terrorism under the garb of local resistance, government sources further revealed.

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