Rajnath rejects Trump's claim of brokering ceasefire with Pakistan

NEW DELHI

India's defence minister said on Monday that New Delhi had ended its military conflict with Pakistan in May as it had met all its objectives and had not responded to pressure, rejecting US President Donald Trump's claim that he brokered the truce.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was speaking at the opening of a discussion in parliament on the April 22 attack on Hindu tourists in IIOJK in which 26 men were killed. The attack led to a fierce, four-day military conflict with Pakistan in May, the worst between the nuclear-armed neighbours in nearly three decades.

"India halted its operation because all the political and military objectives studied before and during the conflict had been fully achieved," Singh said.

"To suggest that the operation was called off under pressure is baseless and entirely incorrect," he said.

"At no stage, in any conversation with the United States, was there any linkage with trade and what was going on," Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said, referring to Trump's repeated remarks that he had used the prospect of trade deals between Washington and the two countries as leverage to broker peace.

There was also no conversation between Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi between the day of the Pahalgam attack when Trump called to convey his sympathy and June 17 when Modi was in Canada for the G-7 summit, Jaishankar told parliament.

Indian opposition groups have questioned what they say is the intelligence failure behind the Pahalgam attack and the government's inability to capture the assailants - issues they are expected to raise during the parliament discussion.

They have also criticised Modi for coming under pressure from Trump and agreeing to end the fighting, along with reports that Indian jets were shot down during the fighting. Reuters