No nuclear signalling from Pakistan, US didn’t mediate truce: Foreign Secretary tells House panel

NEW DELHI: Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told a parliamentary committee on Monday that the conflict between India and Pakistan was always in the conventional domain, and there was no nuclear signalling by the neighbouring country, sources said.

The sources said Misri reiterated the government's stand that the decision to stop military actions was taken at a bilateral level, as some opposition members questioned US President Donald Trump's repeated assertions about his administration's role in stopping the conflict.

When some opposition members of the Standing Committee on External Affairs, which is headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, prodded him on the US leader's repeated attempts to take centre stage, India's top diplomat quipped that Trump did not seek his consent for doing so.

No other country, the foreign ministry in its presentation said, has "any locus standi" to comment on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, a clear repudiation of the US' suggestion for mediation between India and Pakistan.

The US leader had even claimed that his country stopped a likely nuclear war that could have killed millions of people.

Several members, mostly from the opposition, raised questions related to the Pahalgam terror attack, whether Pakistan used Chinese platforms, the hostile stand of Turkiye and Azerbaijan against India, Pakistan's success in getting an IMF loan, and social media-dominated discourse on a host of issues.

An opposition member asked why the Indian government has not come out strongly to rebut Trump.

The foreign ministry, though, has made it clear in its earlier briefings that India and Pakistan agreed on the cessation of firing bilaterally, a point reiterated by Misri who noted the decision was taken at the DGMO-level talks at the request of the neighbouring country.

Replying to queries from members, Misri said the conflict between India and Pakistan was always in the conventional domain, and there was no nuclear signalling by the neighbouring country.

Tharoor later told reporters after the three-hour meeting, which he said was attended by a record 24 members, that the committee unanimously expressed solidarity with Misri in the face of "unwarranted attacks" he had faced online after the two sides agreed to stop military actions.

The foreign secretary and his family, including his young daughter, faced heavy trolling from right-wing social media handles after India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to halt all military actions. Several political leaders, former bureaucrats and defence veterans has condemned the attack and expressed solidarity with Vikram Misri.

The committee wanted to pass a formal resolution, but the IFS officer objected to it.

Some MPs, the sources said, asked if Pakistan used Chinese platforms in the conflict.

Misri said it did not matter as India hammered Pakistani air bases.

To a question about Pakistan managing to secure a loan from the IMF, he said India opposed it but different countries are guided by their own interests, sources said.

To questions about Turkiye's adversarial stand against India, he said the country had traditionally not been a supporter of India and added that he did not foresee any chance of improvement in Indo-Pak ties due to the neighbouring country's continuous display of hostility.

The ministry informed the committee that the initial probe into the Pahalgam terror attack has revealed "communication nodes" of terrorists with their "masterminds in Pakistan."

The attack has "footprints and tracks" similar to previous attacks claimed by The Resistance Front, the ministry said in a presentation, adding the terror organisation is just another name of designated terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Pakistan's track record as a terror sanctuary is well established, rooted in solid facts and evidence, it said.

The ministry also said Pakistan blames India for the killings of some individuals, labelled as extra-judicial and extra-territorial by the neighbouring country, on its soil even though its allegations are devoid of any facts or evidence.

It is meant to draw a false equivalence between the two countries to suggest that both neighbours are victims of cross-border terrorism which is not the case, it said in the presentation.

UN-designated terrorists roam freely in Pakistan and continue to incite violence against India, the ministry said in its presentation.

The ministry said in its presentation that India witnessed last year alone at least 24 terrorist attacks linked to Pakistan-based terror organisations, leading to the death of 24 security personnel and 30 civilians.

"Terrorists are found to be using military grade weapons, assistance through drones, secure communication equipment, navigational aids, steel-coated bullets and assistance in infiltration through coordinated ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops," it said, seeking to establish the help provided by the Pakistani state in terror activities.

Misri was also dismissive of the opposition's criticism of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi citing a comment by him to claim that Pakistan was informed about Operation Sindoor and asking how many planes India lost due to this.

The minister is being quoted in wrong context, he said, adding that a contact was made with Pakistan at the DGMO level only after the strikes on terror sites on May 7.

The meeting was attended by a number of lawmakers, including the TMC's Abhishek Banerjee, the Congress' Rajeev Shukla and Deepender Hooda, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owais, and the BJP's Aparajita Sarangi and Arun Govil.

The meeting's agenda was the "current foreign policy developments regarding India and Pakistan", which comes against the backdrop of the Indian armed forces carrying out Operation Sindoor to avenge the Pahalgam attack and the subsequent military actions between the two countries.

India and Pakistan reached an understanding on halting all military actions on May 10.