Pakistan and India conflict was 'very big', I settled that: Trump
New York/Washington (PTI): US President Donald Trump on Tuesday repeated his claim that he ended the “very big” conflict between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.
In his remarks to military leaders in Quantico, Trump also said that he was "honoured" when Pakistan Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, "who is a very important guy in Pakistan", praised him for saving millions of lives.
"I have settled so many wars" in the nine months of his administration, he said. "I've settled seven. And yesterday we might have settled the biggest of them all, although I don't know, Pakistan and India was very big, both nuclear powers. I settled that.”
Referring to his peace plan to end the Gaza conflict, announced on Monday, Trump said, “We got it, I think, settled. We'll see. Hamas has to agree, and if they don’t, it's going to be very tough on them. But it is what it is. But all of the Arab nations, Muslim nations, have agreed.”
In his remarks, Trump again went back to the conflict between India and Pakistan and praised the Pakistani officials for lauding him for saving millions of lives.
“I had India and Pakistan, (they) were going at it. And I called them both, and in this case, I used trade,” Trump said.
Trump said he told the “two big nuclear nations” that he is “not going to trade" with them. They responded, "'No, no, no, no, you cannot do that'. I said, 'yes, I can. You go into this freaking war that I'm hearing about’,” Trump said, adding that they shot down seven planes. He, however, did not specify which country's jets he was referring to.
“It was starting. There's a lot of bad blood. And I said, ‘You do this, there is not going to be any trade'. And I stopped the war. It was going, it was raging for four days, but that was just the beginning, and we stopped it. It was a great thing,” Trump said.
Last week, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief Munir met Trump in the White House.
Trump said the Prime Minister of Pakistan “was here along with the Field Marshal, who's a very important guy in Pakistan, and he was here three days ago. And I didn't even realise it, as beautiful as he said it, but he said that to a group of people that were with us, two generals, but a group, he said, ‘This man saved millions of lives because he saved the war from going on, and that war was going to get very bad, very, very bad. President Trump saved millions and millions of lives. That was a bad war’.”
Trump said he “was very honoured. I loved the way he (Munir) said it.”
He added that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was there at the meeting too, and "she said that was the most beautiful thing. But we saved a lot of them. Saved a lot of them.”
Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after a “long night” of talks mediated by Washington, he has repeated his claim nearly 50 times that he “helped settle” the tensions between India and Pakistan.
In his address to world leaders from the UN podium last week, Trump repeated his claim that he stopped the conflict between India and Pakistan.
India has been consistently maintaining that the understanding on cessation of hostilities with Pakistan was reached following direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations of the two militaries.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made it clear in Parliament that no leader of any country asked India to stop Operation Sindoor.
Trump had said he was told that if he could stop the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, he should get the Nobel Prize.
"I said, 'Well, what about the seven others? I should get a Nobel Prize for each one'. So they said, 'but if you stop Russia and Ukraine, sir, you should be able to get the Nobel'. I said I stopped seven wars. That's one war, and that's a big one," he said.
He added that he had thought the Russia-Ukraine conflict would be easy to resolve "because I have a good relationship with President Putin, disappointed in him, but I do. I thought that would be the easiest one, but we'll get it done one way or the other."
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SC seeks ED's response on journalist's bail plea in money laundering case
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to file its response within three days on a bail plea of journalist Mahesh Langa in a money laundering case linked to an alleged financial fraud.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi also asked senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the jailed journalist, to file rejoinder, if needed, to the ED's response within two days of it being filed.
The top court fixed the case for further hearing on December 15.
During the brief hearing on Monday, Sibal said a journalist has been facing as many as six cases.
"The journalist is accused of extortion," the counsel for the ED said and sought a short adjournment on the ground that Solicitor General Tuhar Mehta was unavailable at the moment.
The top court on September 8 sought responses from the Gujarat government and the ED on Langa's bail plea.
While issuing the notices on Langa's bail plea, the bench asked, "What kind of a journalist is he?"
"With due respect, there are some very genuine journalists. But there are also people who on their scooter say we are 'patrakar' (journalists) and what they actually do everybody knows," the bench told Sibal.
Sibal replied that these are all allegations.
"In one FIR, he gets anticipatory bail, then a second FIR is lodged and again anticipatory bail is granted but now he is booked under a third FIR for income tax evasion. There are other things also against him," Sibal submitted.
He added that there is a background to the case also.
On July 31, the Gujarat High Court rejected Langa's bail plea in the money laundering case on the grounds that if released on bail, prejudice would be caused to the prosecution case.
On February 25, the ED said it arrested Langa in a money laundering investigation linked to an alleged financial fraud.
He was first arrested in October 2024 in a GST fraud case.
The money laundering case against Langa stems from two FIRs filed by Ahmedabad police on charges of fraud, criminal misappropriation, criminal breach of trust, cheating and causing wrongful loss of lakhs of rupees to certain people.
