Op against terrorists not suspended due to intervention of anyone: Rajnath

Hyderabad: Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday virtually rejected US President Donald Trump’s claims of intervening to stop the Indo-Pak conflict following Operation Sindoor, saying the action against terrorists was not suspended due to any third-party mediation.

Speaking at the ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’ celebrations organised by the Union government here, he said ‘Operation Sindoor’ would resume if any terrorist attack took place in the future.

“There are some people who ask whether the ceasefire between India and Pakistan happened because of the intervention of someone. I would like to make it clear--the operation against terrorists was not suspended because of someone’s intervention,” he said.

“Some claim to have stopped the operation between India and Pakistan. Nobody stopped it. I would like to clarify that Mohammad Ishaq Dar, who is Pakistan’s Deputy PM and foreign minister, also made it clear that India rejected the third-party role in mediation,” he said.

PM Modi has also made it clear that it is a bilateral issue and a third party cannot interfere, he said.

In an interview with Al Jazeera in Doha, and when asked about negotiations with India or Pakistan’s openness to third-party involvement, Dar had replied, “We don’t mind, but India has categorically been stating it’s a bilateral matter...”

Dar recalled that when he met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in July and asked about dialogue with India, the top US diplomat clarified that India has maintained it is a “bilateral issue.”

“When I met Rubio on July 25 in Washington, I asked him what happened to the dialogue. He said that India says it is a bilateral issue,” Dar recalled.

Tensions between India and Pakistan soared after terrorists killed 26 people, mostly civilians, in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22.

India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the Pahalgam attack. The two countries reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that he brokered a ceasefire between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

Rajnth Singh further said a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) commander has admitted to the deaths of the terror group chief Masood Azhar’s family members in the Indian missile strikes in Pakistan during Operation Sindoor.

He said a video confirming it has also been released.

Speaking about India’s growing strength, he asserted that no one can challenge the country’s sovereignty.

He highlighted that in the last 11 years, under the leadership of PM Modi, the country has repeatedly demonstrated its resolve through actions like surgical strike in 2016, Balakot air strike in 2019 and Operation Sindoor this year.