New Delhi: Security agencies are pursuing Mohammad Lateef Bhat in connection with the Kulgam attack in which three Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were injured.
Although Bhat has been on the radar of security agencies for some time, the emergence of a relatively new outfit, the Kashmir Revolutionary Army (KRA), has added a new dimension to the investigation. Bhat is believed to be associated with the outfit, which security agencies suspect is a proxy organisation of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba (LeT).
Analysts would describe the KRA as an offshoot of The Resistence Front (TRF). The front organisation is the Lashkar and the TRF was created following the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.
The TRF was meant to give the LeT an indigenous appearance. The TRF was first banned by India. Following the Pahalgam attack, the United States too designated the TRF Front as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation in July 2025.
An official said that post the ban by India and the United States, the TRF came under immense heat.
“The outfit which had claimed the Pahalgam attack at first was quick to retract its statement owing to immense pressure from both India and the international community,” the official said.
With the TRF taking the backseat, the Lashkar denied to create a secondary offshoot, the KRA.
This was created specifically to bypass international sanctions and severe crackdowns by the Indian agencies on the TRF, the official said.
An Intelligence Bureau official said that the KRA and TRF are one and the same.
They share the same handlers, ground operatives and their recruitment pipelines are identical.
“The objective is to evade international sanctions and avoid attracting the attention of Indian security agencies. However, the emergence of such groups also suggests that these outfits are becoming fragmented and lack unity,” the official said.
While projecting such an image, these proxies are eventually trying to shield their parent organisation, the Lashkar.
When a probe is undertaken, the agencies have to first deal with the KRA, then move on to the TRF before finally reaching up to the Lashkar leadership.
This gives the parent group ample time to cover their tracks, while also planning newer attacks. The operations of the KRA are slightly different when it comes to TRF.
The KRA’s Mohammad Lateef Bhat only carries out swift strikes before he blends into the local population. He does not take the assistance of more than two of three persons in any attack.
He carries an AK-47 rifle with him which has been used to execute terror strikes. Bhat’s name is not new to the agencies.
In July this year, he is was involved in the fatal shooting of Jammu and Kashmir head constable Aashiq Hussain in Anantnag. He was also involved in the July 31 targeted killing of two migrant workers from Chhattisgarh, Bhupendra and Deepak at Kulgam.
Even in the latest Kulgam attack, Bhat followed a similar modus operandi, officials say.
He avoids running into secluded locations to take cover. He feels that by blending into the local population and going about his business normally, the chances of him being tracked are lesser.
All these recent attacks bear the distinct signature of the TRF. However, the outfit has refrained from openly claiming responsibility for these strikes, a move believed to be part of a deliberate strategy to avoid attracting further scrutiny. Instead, names of relatively lesser-known groups such as the KRA have surfaced in connection with the attacks. Investigators suspect that the use of such names could be an attempt to create confusion and complicate the task of Indian security agencies in identifying those behind the strikes.
The idea is to create more layers so that the parent outfit is completely shielded and going forward, one could expect more such proxies of the Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammad, an official said.
(IANS)
