India-Pak ceasefire was bilateral, not mediated by Trump

New Delhi

The India-Pakistan understanding on cessation of hostilities was arrived at following direct negotiations between the two sides, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump's claim that Washington played a role in brokering the truce.

Jaishankar also said that India will again hit terrorists in Pakistan in response to any future terror strikes like the one in Pahalgam, suggesting that it was the reason why Operation Sindoor has not been concluded.

In an interview to Dutch broadcaster NOS, he said that the government was very clear that "if there is such an attack, there will be a response". Jaishankar was in The Hague as part of his three-nation tour of the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany.

"The operation continues because there is a clear message in that operation - that if there are acts of the kind we saw on 22 April, there will be a response, that we will hit the terrorists," he said.

"If the terrorists are in Pakistan, we will hit them where they are. So, there is a message in continuing the operation but continuing the operation is not the same as firing on each other," he said.