NEW DELHI: In what is being seen as a crude manoeuvre, The Resistance Front (TRF) – a proxy for Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, has dramatically pedalled back on its publicly declared authorship of Pahalgam terror attack, blaming the earlier claim to a “coordinated cyber intrusion”.
On Saturday, it unequivocally denied any responsibility for the massacre of tourists who were targeted for being non-Muslim. “…The Resistance Front unequivocally denies any involvement in Pahalgam incident. Any attribution of this act to TRF is false, hasty, & part of an orchestrated campaign to malign Kashmiri resistance,” its statement alleged.
“Shortly after the Pahalgam attack, a brief and unauthorised message was posted from one of our digital platforms. After an internal audit, we have reason to believe it was the result of a coordinated cyber intrusion – a familiar tactic in Indian state’s digital warfare arsenal,” it further claimed.
The latest statement came amid indications of the international community accepting India’s stand that the terrorists belonged to LeT, a terrorist organisation supported by Pakistan Army and its intelligence agency, ISI, as part of their proxy war against India.
Security establishment sources, however, said that the retraction was ludicrous and would serve little purpose. They said the move was merely a damage control measure by the ISI to escape accountability.
