Athens, April 21 (IANS) The Pahalgam terrorist attack last year exposed not a dormant terror ecosystem but the sustained operational capacity of a Pakistan-backed network operating from its soil, a report has highlighted.
According to Greek media outlet ‘News Bomb’, the pressing question is why the terror infrastructure continues to grow across Pakistan despite operational setbacks, diplomatic scrutiny, and India’s kinetic response through Operation Sindoor in early May 2025.
“One year ago, on 22 April, four armed men emerged from the pine forests flanking the Baisaran meadow near Pahalgam and, after instructing the tourists before them to recite the Kalma, proceeded to execute 26 Hindu tourists. The choreography of the killings, the equipment recovered from the scene, the identity of the handlers traced to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and the claim of responsibility twice issued on Telegram by The Resistance Front (TRF) together formed a familiar signature,” the report detailed.
It highlighted that the TRF was established in 2019 as a proxy of Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) aimed at carrying out attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.
On July 17 last year, the US Department of State formally designated TRF as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organisation’ and Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity, calling it an LeT ‘front and proxy’ behind the deadliest civilian attack in India since 26/11.
“The designation was not a diplomatic courtesy. It aligned US sanctions instruments with the operational reality that Indian intelligence had documented for more than half a decade,” it noted.
The report stressed that designation has not forced a retreat but instead coincided with a more assertive mainstreaming of Pakistan’s jihadist network.
“On 8 October 2025, at the Markaz Usman-o-Ali compound in Bahawalpur, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) announced the formation of its first women’s wing, ‘Jamaat-ul-Mominat’, under Sadia Azhar, sister of Masood Azhar and widow of Yusuf Azhar (killed at Markaz Subhanallah during Operation Sindoor). Within weeks, over 5,000 women had reportedly been enrolled through a 40-minute online curriculum titled Daura-e-Taskiya, with plans for district-level units across Pakistan-occupied Kashmir,” it mentioned.
The consequences, it said, are now visible beyond South Asia, with the Global Terrorism Index 2026 placing Pakistan as the world’s most terrorism-affected country, recording a score of 8.574 and 1,139 terrorism-related fatalities recorded in 2025.
The report emphasised that one year after Pahalgam, the question for Western capitals is not whether Pakistan can be pressured to dismantle the terror networks it has built but whether the global bodies such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the UN 1267 Sanctions Committee, and bilateral partners are ready to impose costs based on the documented evidence.
Highlighting the broader implication, the report said, “Anything less will vindicate what Pahalgam’s victims already imply: that the terror franchise of Pakistan, supported by its military, is profitable; the clientele is diversified; and the signal from the international system is that terror remains an export that pays. The international community should continue to pressure the Pakistani military to stop spreading terrorism.”
–IANS
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