J&K: Fearing hit-back, LeT proxy does U-turn, says no hand in Pahalgam attack

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.