New Delhi: As tensions with Pakistan escalate, India is now pushing for the banned terror outfit, The Resistance Front (TRF), at the United Nations (UN). In the early hours of May 7, India executed Operation Sindoor, striking nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir with precision missiles, including the LeT headquarters in Muridke and a Jaish-e-Mohammed base in Bahawalpur. The strikes, which did not target Pakistani military establishments, were termed by Indian officials as a calibrated answer to Pakistan’s “terror factory”. Pakistan, which denied its involvement and condemned the strikes, warned it would respond, further souring relations.
Patel shared the recent comment from Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Sky News, who admitted that Pakistan has sponsored and trained terror groups. Patel said, “This is not merely India’s battle. Pakistan’s Proxy Wars Risk World Peace India is working to have TRF declared a terrorist organisation with UN sanctions, which would mean asset freezes and operational constraints. Nonetheless, semantically citing Islamabad’s non-permanent UNSC seat, Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar diluted an America-blamed statement specifically mentioning TRF to a generic condemnation of the attack without reference to the group or Pahalgam.
Isolation for Islamabad was apparent after the UNSC meeting on May 6, called by Pakistan, concluded without any resolution or statement, as the meeting was held behind closed doors. As the event was covered in posts on X, they mentioned that multiple meeting attendees brought up LeT when the spokesperson made false flag assertions from Pakistan. India’s External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar, said during a discussion with UN Secretary-General António Guterres that those behind the attack and its supporters “must be punished.” That’s Guterres, who condemned the attack and called for restraint from both countries to prevent a military escalation.
There has been a mixture of global reactions. The US, Israel, France and Russia have supported India’s counterterrorism position. Washington has reaffirmed its solidarity on the phone with Jaishankar. So although the attack was condemned by other nations from the Global South, like Argentina, Brazil and even Australia, not to mention a variety of European countries, many Global South nations were quiet (notably Malaysia and the majority of African states), which meant India could not galvanise wider support for its cause.
The attack has created public outrage in India. In New Delhi and London, there were protests outside Pakistan’s High Commission demanding action, wherever Pakistan suspended the Indus Waters Treaty, closed the Attari border and expelled Pakistani diplomats. Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to chase the attackers “to the ends of the earth” and give the armed forces operational freedom to attack them.
The stakes here are high since India has been pushing for a UN ban on TRF. Whether TRF achieves something like its predecessors in the early 2000s is essentially a question of whether Pakistan can exert influence on an otherwise shiv and mute Beijing Watchman. At the moment, the Pahalgam tragedy has solved the Indian imperative of breaking the backbone of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, with the whole world being an occasional eyewitness to that.