The US State Department added the Resistance Front to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The Resistance Front, a cover organization of the Pakistan-supported and Al Qaeda-allied Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group, claimed credit for the April 22 attack in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir that killed 26 tourists.
With increased muscle, backing and resources, the TTP – which sent thousands of fighters into Afghanistan to help the Afghan Taliban conquer the country over the summer – can now refocus its efforts on its insurgency in order to overthrow the Pakistani state.
Pakistan remains a “safe haven” for a host of regional terror groups, including the Afghan Taliban and its integral subgroup, the Al Qaeda linked Haqqani Network, according the the State Department’s newly released Country Reports on Terrorism 2019.
Qari Saifullah Akhtar’s waged jihad for four decades. He has been directly linked to Osama bin Laden and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate.
The spokesman for al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent said that all of those who participated in the attempted hijacking of the PNS Zulfiqar were active duty naval officers.