ISI considers retiring TRF to protect Pak from FATF Grey List amid CPEC 2.0 pressures

New Delhi, Sep 24 (IANS) With a plethora of information being collected by the Indian agencies relating to The Resistance Front (TRF), the ISI is looking to retire the outfit and float a new one to carry out attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.

Indian agencies say that the Intelligence Bureau, National Investigation Agency (NIA), and Jammu and Kashmir Police have managed to gather so much information on the TRF that it is becoming embarrassing for the ISI. It never expected that the Indian agencies would manage to gather data that includes financial trails in such a fast manner.

However, today, intelligence-gathering capabilities have changed. Moreover, the Narendra Modi government’s emphasis on zero tolerance towards terror has alerted the agencies. With a free hand, the agencies can coordinate better and gather details at a record pace.

Following the Pahalgam attack, The Resistance Front had claimed responsibility for the same. However, the manner in which it retracted the statement in such quick time only suggests that the ISI wanted to wipe out every trace relating to this outfit.

The NIA, which was tasked with investigation, has, since the Pahalgam attack, dug out concrete information relating to the outfit’s financial trail. Over 400 call records have been unearthed, which were made to Malaysia and Gulf nations. All these calls were in relation to the funding for the outfit. The NIA learnt that most of the funds have come in from these countries, and most of them have been in the form of donations.

A Malaysian resident, Yasir Hayat, is under the radar for allegedly paying the outfit Rs 9 lakh. Following the attack in Pahalgam, there has been stony silence, and there has been no chatter relating to the TRF. This is an intentional ploy by the ISI to take the outfit completely off the radar and to eventually retire it.

However, Indian agencies say that even if the ISI retires this outfit, it would eventually come up with a new one to handle operations in Jammu and Kashmir. The NIA, while probing the larger conspiracy into the Pahalgam attack, is largely focused on the funding trail. This is largely being done to make a case before the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), so that Pakistan is placed in the Grey List.

Pakistan cannot afford to be on the FATF’s list at the moment, as it has plenty of commitments where China and the US are concerned. The bigger worry stems from China, which has asked Pakistan to raise funds for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Project 2.0 (CPEC). China has burnt its hands during the CPEC 1 due to attacks by the BLA and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The Pakistan Army has failed to rein in these groups, as a result of which the Chinese have faced massive losses.

In such an event where Pakistan has signed the CPEC 2.0 and also a minerals deal with the United States, being placed in the Grey List is not an option. Neither the US nor China would want a situation, whereby Pakistan is under scrutiny by the FATF for terror funding.

In recent years, where investigations on terror funding are concerned, the Indian agencies have managed to pull out most information relating to The Resistance Front. This is the group that has been most active over the last couple of years, and hence every trail, be it conspiracy or funding, goes back to this outfit.

The ISI’s ploy to keep the TRF in the background or to retire it is evident from the fact that on September 11, 2025, a new terror group issued a press release announcing its arrival.

“We, the Mountain Warriors of Kashmir (MWK), announce our entry into the battlefield. We will give our lives to fight against the ingress of occupation. This fight will go on until we achieve Azadi,” read the press release.

This is an outfit that is being made to look like a homegrown one. Basically, it would initially indulge in propaganda before filling in The Resistance Front’s shoes.

In a nutshell, the new outfit would have the same masterminds and players, but it would pose a challenge for the Indian agencies to investigate it and build up a case right from scratch.

--IANS

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