New Delhi: Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri has informed the Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs that the US had no role to play in the ‘cessation of firing’ decision between India and Pakistan on May 10. The Committee, headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, met on Monday for a briefing on Operation Sindoor. The meeting lasted nearly two hours.
Misri is also learnt to have told the panel that there was no nuclear ‘signalling’ by Pakistan and India agreed to a cessation of military action only after Pakistan gave a commitment that it would do nothing to escalate the situation further.
While the US and Pakistan has been calling the suspension of hostilities between the two neighbours as a ceasefire, India refuses to use that term. India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar had made it clear that it is nothing but a ‘cessation of firing’ and not a ceasefire. India has maintained that her armed forces are ready to respond in a befitting manner if there is any escalatory attempt by Pakistan.
Operation Sindoor was launched by India on May 7 after the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir that left 26 persons, mostly tourists from across the country, dead and several others injured on April 22. India has claimed that the attack was masterminded by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Pakistan. Among those involved directly in the attack were two Pakistani terrorists, Indian security agencies have said.
India has said that it waited for two weeks for Pakistan to take any action against the terror hubs on its soil, before launching Operation Sindoor that involved high-precision strikes on nine terror facilities in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. These missile strikes killed over 100 terrorists belonging to the LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).
Pakistan retaliated by launching a series of missile and drone attacks against military and civilian targets in India on the nights of May 8 and May 9. While India’s robust air defence systems intercepted all the missiles and drones, Pakistan used its artillery to target civilian locations along the Line of Control (LOC) and International Border in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.
Early on May 10, India dealt the death blow by incapacitating Pakistan’s air defence systems and carrying out precision missile strikes on several of the country’s air bases, causing severe damage. Within a few hours, the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) of Pakistan contacted his counterpart in India, seeking a cessation of military operations. India agreed on condition that Pakistan does nothing to escalate the situation.
US president Donald Trump, meanwhile, went to town claiming that he was the one who brokered truce between the two countries by offering to do trade with them. This got India’s Opposition parties – particularly the Congress – accusing the Government of bowing to US pressure and accepting a ‘ceasefire’.
“On Monday, the foreign secretary set the record straight by informing the Committee that India’s decision has nothing to do with the US or any nuclear ‘signalling’ by Pakistan that didn’t take place. This was an operation using conventional weapons, he informed the members,” an official said.
