WASHINGTON: The US government designated The Resistance Front, considered an offshoot of the Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba, as a “foreign terrorist organization” over the April 22 militant attack in India-administered Kashmir that killed 26 people, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday.

The Resistance Front, also known as Kashmir Resistance, initially took responsibility for the attack in Pahalgam before denying it days later.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, listed as a “foreign terrorist organization” by the United States, is a group accused of plotting attacks in India and in the West, including the three-day deadly assault on Mumbai in November 2008.

TRF’s designation by Washington as a “foreign terrorist organization” and “specially designated global terrorist” enforced President Donald Trump’s “call for justice for the Pahalgam attack,” Rubio said in a statement.

Rubio called TRF, which emerged in 2019, a “front and proxy” for Lashkar-e-Taiba. It is considered an offshoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, a Delhi-based think tank.

The attack sparked heavy fighting between nuclear-armed Asian neighbors India and Pakistan in the latest escalation of a decades-old rivalry. New Delhi blamed the attack on Pakistan, which denied responsibility while calling for a neutral investigation. Washington condemned the attack but did not directly blame Islamabad.

Michael Kugelman, a Washington-based South Asia analyst and writer for Foreign Policy magazine, said in designating TRF, “Washington is flagging its concern about the terrorist attack that provoked the recent India-Pakistan conflict, and siding with New Delhi’s view that the group is linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba.”

He added: “This can be a shot in the arm for a US-India relationship looking to rebound after a few tough months.”

On May 7, Indian jets bombed sites across the border that New Delhi described as “terrorist infrastructure,” setting off an exchange of attacks between the two countries by fighter jets, missiles, drones, and artillery that killed dozens until a ceasefire on May 10.

The ceasefire was first announced by Trump on social media after Washington held talks with both sides, but India has differed with Trump’s claims that it resulted from his intervention and his threats to sever trade talks.

India’s position has been that New Delhi and Islamabad must resolve their problems directly and with no outside involvement.

India is an increasingly important US partner in Washington’s effort to counter China’s rising influence in Asia, while Pakistan is a US ally.

Both Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan claim Muslim-majority Kashmir in full while ruling only parts of the Himalayan territory, over which they have also fought wars.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Minister for Food Security Rana Tanveer Hussain on Thursday invited Chinese enterprises to invest in the country’s agriculture sector, eyeing stronger collaboration with Beijing in irrigation technologies and modern farming techniques.

Pakistan has recently undertaken efforts to promote its agriculture sector, which include establishing a new regulatory body this week to reform the sector and bring domestic food safety standards in line with international requirements.

Agriculture remains a cornerstone of Pakistan’s economy, employing nearly 38 percent of the workforce and contributing around 19 percent to the country’s GDP. However, the sector has long faced challenges, including outdated practices, poor regulatory oversight, low export competitiveness and barriers in meeting international sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards.

Hussain met a high-level Chinese delegation including Jiang Zaidong, the Chinese ambassador to Pakistan, on the sidelines of the China-Pakistan Economic and Trade Exchange Conference in Islamabad.

“The Minister also underlined the importance of public-private partnerships and urged Chinese enterprises, including those from XPCC [Xinjian Production and Construction Corps] and China Xinjian Group, to explore investment opportunities in Pakistan’s agriculture and agri-business sectors,” the food security and research ministry said in a statement.

Hussain welcomed proposals for joint ventures, research exchanges and the establishment of demonstration farms and technology centers in Pakistan, the statement added.

The two sides discussed enhancing agricultural cooperation, particularly focusing on research, cotton production, seed development, irrigation efficiency and technological exchange.

The Pakistani minister highlighted the challenges Islamabad has faced in recent years, especially in cotton production, where declining yields and outdated seed varieties have created major setbacks, the ministry said.

“The Minister expressed keen interest in learning from Xinjiang’s remarkable progress in improving agricultural productivity, especially in regions with arid and semi-arid climates, which closely resemble many parts of Pakistan,” the statement said.

Zaidong reaffirmed China’s commitment to deepening agricultural cooperation with Pakistan, the food security ministry said.

“He appreciated Pakistan’s proactive approach and openness to collaboration and highlighted the potential for long-term partnership in food security, technology transfer, and rural development,” the statement added.

Pakistan has undertaken a reform drive to enhance its economic sectors via the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC). The SIFC is a civil-military hybrid body formed in 2023 to fast-track foreign investment and economic reform in strategic sectors, including agriculture, mining, IT and defense production.

Pakistan aims to attract international investment in its key economic sectors to ward off a prolonged macroeconomic crisis that has drained its resources and embroiled the country in a balance of payments crisis.