‘India halted Operation Sindoor after Pakistan requested for it’: Rajnath amid Trump’s claims

Amid US President Donald Trump’s continuing claims of brokering a ceasefire, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said that the Operation Sindoor was halted at Pakistan’s request — and nothing else.

In an exclusive interview with Network 18 Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi, Rajnath said that Operation Sindoor was not halted under pressure from anyone.

We agreed to a ceasefire after Pakistan’s DGMO reached out to us, not because of any external pressure, Rajnath said.

But, if needed, we will do Operation Sindoor again because we have not ended it, Rajnath said.

Rajnath’s remarks have come at a time when Trump has again started to refer to the India-Pakistan conflict of May in his public remarks. He has claimed that it was his intervention that stopped the India-Pakistan conflict.

India launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7 to strike at nine terrorist sites in Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) and Pakistan in response to the Pahalgam attack the previous month.

When Pakistan responded with attacks on Indian cities and military facilities the next day, India responded with strikes on Pakistan’s military installations. For the next four days, India and Pakistan were locked in clashes and India hammered Pakistan’s airbases, radars, air defence systems, and other military infrastructure.

After four days of hammering, Pakistan reached out and requested a ceasefire on May 10. India granted the request as it has achieved its objectives.

However, Trump has never stopped claiming that he brokered the ceasefire between India and Pakistan. He has invoked nuclear threat to the world from these countries and said he leveraged trade with these countries to push them towards a ceasefire.

At the same time, Trump’s sky-high tariffs on India and alignment with Pakistan, the India-US relationship has fallen to the lowest point in the post-Cold War era.