People's Anti-Fascist Front | |
---|---|
Dates of operation | 2020–present [1] |
Motives | Kashmiri separatism |
Active regions | Jammu and Kashmir |
Status | Active |
Opponents | |
Battles and wars | Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir [1] |
Designated as a terrorist group by |
The People's Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF) is a militant terrorist organization [2] [3] [1] actively engaged in insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, an ongoing armed conflict between Kashmiri separatist militants and Indian forces in Jammu and Kashmir. PAFF was established in 2020 by Jaish-e-Mohammad or Lashkar-e-Taiba, two Pakistan-based Jihadist groups. [1] [2]
The group is responsible for killing of civilians, [4] [5] several government officials, [6] [7] [8] [9] attacking Indian forces, [10] [11] [12] radicalizing youth for recruitment and training in handling guns, ammunition and explosives. [13]
PAFF emerged after the 2019 removal of Article 370 of the Constitution of India by the Indian government which revoked the special status of the Jammu and Kashmir. [14] [1] According to Tracking Terrorism, the group was started in 2020 by Jaish-e-Mohammad or Lashkar-e-Taiba. [1]
PAFF is among several newly emerged militant groups [3] like The Resistance Front, [15] [16] United Liberation Front, [17] [18] and Ghaznavi Force. [19] [20] These groups strive to appear more 'secular' [21] [22] unlike their predecessor militant groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hizbul Mujahideen, in terms of their nomenclature, logos and slogans, as well as the nature and tone of messaging and communication through their pamphlets. For instance, the names of each of the newly emergent groups depict a clear departure from Islamic nomenclature as adopted by their predecessors. [22] The emphasis of groups like the PAFF or Lashkar-e-Taiba backed The Resistance Front [23] on terminology such as "resistance against occupation," "fascism" and "fascist forces" stems from a desire to justify their activities using a more secular-looking messaging instead of a call for jihad against infidels used by their parent organisations. [21] [22] [24] This change is also seen in the logos used by People's Anti-Fascist Front and other outfits. [22]
The PAFF, along with other militant groups have engaged in a form of 'Hybrid Militancy'. A method by which ordinary citizens are recruited into the organization, and return to their normal lives after committing acts of terrorism. [25] [26] [27]
On 7 January 2023, India's Ministry of Home Affairs designated PAFF as a terrorist group. [3] [14]
The PAFF has claimed responsibility for several attacks in Jammu and Kashmir against Indian forces. [11] [28] [12] [9]
The PAFF has made use of social media videos and posters to spread its propaganda. [29] [30] [31] [32]
Lashkar-e-Taiba is a terrorist group formed in Pakistan, and a militant and Islamist Salafi jihadist organisation. Described as one of Pakistan's "most powerful jihadi groups", it is most infamous outside Pakistan. The organisation's primary stated objective is to merge the whole of Kashmir with Pakistan. It was founded in 1985–1986 by Hafiz Saeed, Zafar Iqbal Shehbaz Abdullah Azzam and several other Islamist mujahideen with funding from Osama bin Laden during the Soviet–Afghan War. It has been designated a terrorist group by numerous countries.
Jaish-e-Mohammed is a Pakistan-based Deobandi jihadist terrorist group active in Kashmir. The group's primary motive is to separate Kashmir from India and merge it into Pakistan.
The insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, also known as the Kashmir insurgency, is an ongoing separatist militant insurgency against the Indian administration in Jammu and Kashmir, a territory constituting the southwestern portion of the larger geographical region of Kashmir, which has been the subject of a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947.
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed is a Pakistani Islamic preacher and a militant convicted of terrorism. He co-founded Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Pakistan-based Islamist militant organization that is designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Security Council, India, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, and Russia. He is listed on India's NIA Most Wanted. In April 2012, the United States placed a bounty of US$10 million on Saeed for his role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 civilians. While India officially supported the American move, there were protests against it in Pakistan.
Al-Badr is an Islamist militant group operating in the Kashmir region. The group was allegedly formed by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in June 1998. It is believed the group was encouraged by the ISI to operate independently from their previous umbrella group, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM). Prior to the group's separation from HM, they participated in the fighting in Afghanistan in 1990 as part of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hizb-l-Islami (HIG) alongside other anti-Soviet Afghan mujihadeen. India and the United States have declared it a terrorist organisation and banned it. Pakistan has long been a difficult and disruptive neighbor of Afghanistan, increasing Afghanistan's instability by providing intelligence, weapons and security to the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network. But now Pakistan is facing strong backlash both domestically and internationally against its policy of militant sponsorship.
The 2006 Doda massacre was a mass murder of 57 Hindu civilians in two separate incidents by Lashkar-e-Taiba militants in the Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir, India on 30 April 2006.
Pakistan and state-sponsored terrorism refers to the involvement of Pakistan in terrorism through the backing of various designated terrorist organizations. Pakistan has been frequently accused by various countries, including its neighbours Afghanistan, Iran, and India, as well as by the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, of involvement in a variety of terrorist activities in both its local region of South Asia and beyond. Pakistan's northwestern tribal regions along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border have been described as an effective safe haven for terrorists by Western media and the United States Secretary of Defense, while India has accused Pakistan of perpetuating the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir by providing financial support and armaments to militant groups, as well as by sending state-trained terrorists across the Line of Control and de facto India–Pakistan border to launch attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir and India proper, respectively. According to an analysis published by the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in 2008, Pakistan was reportedly, with the possible exception of Iran, perhaps the world's most active sponsor of terrorist groups; aiding these groups that pose a direct threat to the United States. Pakistan's active participation has caused thousands of deaths in the region; all these years Pakistan has been supportive to several terrorist groups despite several stern warnings from the international community. Daniel Byman, a professor and senior analyst of terrorism and security at the Center For Middle East Policy, also wrote that Pakistan is probably 2008's most active sponsor of terrorism. In 2018, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, suggested that the Pakistani government played a role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that were carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist group. In July 2019, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, on an official visit to the United States, acknowledged the presence of some 30,000–40,000 armed terrorists operating on Pakistani soil. He further stated that previous administrations were hiding this truth, particularly from the United States, for the last 15 years during the War on Terror.
2003 Nadimarg massacre was the killing of 24 Kashmiri Pandits in the village of Nadimarg in Pulwama District of Jammu and Kashmir on 23 March 2003. The Government of India blamed militants from the Pakistan-based terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Taiba but failed to secure convictions.
The 2016 Uri attack was carried out on 18 September 2016 by four Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists from Pakistan against an Indian Army brigade headquarters near the town of Uri in the Indian Jammu and Kashmir. 19 Indian soldiers were killed in the attack, and 19–30 others were injured. It was reported by the BBC as having been "the deadliest attack on security forces in Kashmir in two decades".
There have been several attacks on Indian Armed Forces by militants in 2016.
Tehreek-e-Azaadi Jammu and Kashmir, abbreviated as TAJK, is a terrorist front organisation, run by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed. By Indian government, It is claimed to be a front for Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD). In June 2017, it was banned by Pakistan after India raised the issue at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global anti-financial terror body at Paris in February 2017. On 8 June 2017, TAJK was placed on the list of "proscribed organisations" by the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NCTA), an Internal Counterterrorism Authority of Pakistan under Interior Ministry.
On 10 July 2017, the first Monday of the month of Shraavana, 8 Hindu civilian pilgrims on the way from Amarnath Temple in Kashmir Valley, in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, were killed in an Islamist terror attack. The pilgrims mostly belonged to the Indian state of Gujarat. Eight people were killed and at least 18 people were injured in the attack.
On 30 July and 6 August 2002, in the month of Shraavana, 11 people were killed and 30 injured in a terror attack by Islamic extremists from Lashkar-e-Taiba's front group of al-Mansuriyan, on Nunwan base camp at Pahalgam of the Amarnath Hindu pilgrimage (Yatra) to Amarnath Temple glacial cave shrine in Kashmir Valley in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Indian Army operations in Jammu and Kashmir include security operations such as Operation Rakshak, which began in 1990, Operation Sarp Vinash in 2003 and Operation Randori Behak in 2020. Other operations include humanitarian missions such as Operation Megh Rahat and operations with a social aim such as Operation Goodwill and Operation Calm Down. The Indian Army works in tandem with the other arms of the Indian Armed Forces and security forces in Jammu and Kashmir such as during Mission Sahayata or joint operations.
Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind is an al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamist jihadist militant group active in Kashmir. The group's stated objective is to create Kashmir as an independent Islamic state under Sharia law and to fought jihad against Indian administration of Jammu and Kashmir.
The 2023 Rajouri attacks occurred on 1 and 2 January 2023, respectively at the Dangri village of Rajouri district in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The first attack, a shooting, resulted in the death of four and injured nine others. In the second attack, an IED exploded near the same attack site, resulting in the death of a child at the scene and injuring five others. A second child injured in that blast died from injuries, raising the overall death toll to six.
On 13 September 2023, a confrontation erupted between Indian security forces and Kashmiri separatist militants in the Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, India. The week-long encounter in the Gadol forests in the Anantnag district ended on 19 September, in which The Resistance Front commander, Uzair Khan was killed along with at least two senior Indian Army officers and a J&K Police officer. After losing 4 security forces personnel on the first day, Indian security forces were finally able to clear the militant hideout on the 7th day of the operation, as the dense jungles and rough terrain of the area provided cover to the militants.
The Resistance Front (TRF) is a militant organisation actively engaged in Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, and designated as a terrorist organisation in India. Indian government and other experts believe that the organisation was founded by and is an offshoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based Jihadist terrorist group. The group is responsible for attacks on and killings of civilians, including those belonging to religious minority communities such as Kashmiri Hindus government employees, labourers and business owners, local politicians, and tourists, as well as for several attacks on Indian security forces including local policemen.
The 2024 Reasi attack was a militant attack that occurred on 9 June 2024 in the Reasi district of the Jammu division of Jammu and Kashmir, India. Several unidentified militants opened fire on a passenger bus transporting Hindu pilgrims from the Shiv Khori cave to Katra, causing it to lose control and plummet into a deep gorge, followed by further firing at the crashed bus by the gunmen. Nine people were killed in the attack, and an additional 41 were injured.
Pak terror outfit releases video claiming Rajouri attack responsibility, says G-20 summit next target
Along with other organisations, the PAFF is indulging in the radicalisation of impressionable youth for recruitment and training in handling guns, ammunition and explosives. The group has also been involved in terrorism. It has committed and participated in various acts of terrorism in India, MHA said
According to a notification issued by the MHA, the PAFF emerged in 2019 as a proxy outfit of JeM, a proscribed terrorist organisation.
Changing Militancy in Kashmir: These brands have adopted a more secularized idiom and ideology to justify their activities, emphasizing resistance against occupation, fascism and hindutva as raison d'etre instead of jihad or a religious war.
Security forces in Kashmir are facing a new challenge on the militancy front — the presence of "hybrid" militants who are not listed as ultras but persons radicalised enough to carry out a terror strike and then slip back into the routine life.
Security forces have increased pistol recoveries post-encounters, and in many cases, the slain militants were found weapon-less. While the dearth of weaponry may have come as a challenge, militants improvised tactics, leading to security forces grabbling with what they describe as "Hybrid Militancy."