Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Tuesday underlined that the India-Pakistan conflict remains a strictly bilateral matter, rejecting any scope for third-party intervention. Speaking at the Hyderabad Liberation Day event, he said, “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 asserted that “not only across the table, today’s India is competent to respond to the enemy by looking into the eyes”.
Referring to Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar’s interview with Al Jazeera, Rajnath 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 third-party role in the conflict.”
In an interview to Al Jazeera aired on Monday, when asked if Islamabad wanted involvement of a third party, Dar said: “Well, we don’t mind, but India has been categorically saying that it is bilateral, so we don’t mind bilateral…when the ceasefire offer came through Secretary Rubio (US Secretary of State Marco Rubio) to me on 10th of May, around 8.17 am… I was told that there would very soon be a dialogue between you (Pakistan) and India at an independent place.”
“When we met on July 25 for a bilateral meeting, myself with Secretary Rubio in Washington, I asked what happened to the dialogue.. He said India says that it is a bilateral issue…So we are not begging for anything…any country, we want dialogue… We are a peace-loving country. We believe that is the way forward. But obviously it takes two to tango. So unless India wishes to have dialogue, we don’t wish to force them,” Dar said.
“Operation Sindoor will resume if any terror attacks take place in future,” he added.
After the Pahalgam terror attack in April, India had launched Operation Sindoor against terror targets in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Pakistan in May, following which both countries launched retaliatory strikes at each other for three days before suspension of hostilities.
