'If Pakistan does something, response will be more devastating': PM Modi told JD Vance

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi told JD Vance India's response would be "more devastating and strong" if Pakistan does something, sources said on Sunday, reacting to The New York Times' account of the US Vice President reaching out to the prime minister as tensions between India and Pakistan soared.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi told US Vice President JD Vance clearly that if Pakistan does something, the response will be more devastating and strong. On the same night, Pakistan attacked 26 sites and India responded very strongly. Strikes were launched on their bases," news agency ANI quoted sources as saying.


According to the report, Vance, who was in India with his Indian-origin wife Usha and their children on the day (April 22) of the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, which led to the conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours, called PM Modi on Friday (local time) with the message that the US officials had assessed there was a "high probability of a dramatic escalation of violence that could tip into full-scale war."

PM Modi listened but "did not commit to any of the ideas" proposed by the US Vice President to de-escalate, the report added.

Vance's intervention came just days after he said in an interview that the India-Pakistan conflict is "fundamentally not our business."

The ceasefire

On Saturday evening, US President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that India and Pakistan had agreed to have a ceasefire, with US secretary of state Marco Rubio announcing the same shortly after. External affairs minister S Jaishankar and his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar then confirmed the cessation of hostilities.

Earlier in the day, Rubio spoke with Pakistan's army chief, General Asim Munir, and Dar, as well as Jaishankar, and urged de-escalation.

Addressing a press conference, foreign secretary Vikram Misri said Pakistan's Director General of Military Operations contacted his Indian counterpart for ceasefire, which was later agreed to.