IT officials raid house, office of BJP MLC R Shankar in Karnataka's Haveri

Despite a detailed rebuttal from the Narendra Modi government, U.S. President Donald Trump has, for the fourth consecutive day, claimed credit for brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan—an achievement he says prevented a conflict that “could have killed millions.”

Speaking at an investment forum in Riyadh, Trump remarked that the leaders of India and Pakistan could now even “go for a nice dinner” together, as tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors had de-escalated.

“Just days ago, my administration successfully brokered a historic ceasefire to stop the escalating violence between India and Pakistan,” Trump said. “And I used trade to a large extent to do it. I told the leaders, ‘Fellows, come on. Let’s make a deal. Let’s do some trading.’”

His comments came even as New Delhi firmly rejected the notion that the United States had any role in mediating the ceasefire, which brought an end to nearly four days of cross-border hostilities. India also dismissed Trump’s claim that he used the threat of halting U.S. trade with both countries to pressure them into backing down.

“Let’s not trade nuclear missiles. Let’s trade the things you make so beautifully,” Trump said. “They both have very powerful, strong, smart leaders. And it all stopped. Hopefully, it’ll stay that way—but it stopped.”

Trump went on to praise Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio, crediting him and others in his administration for their efforts.

“Marco, stand up. What a great job you did on that. Thank you,” Trump said. “Vice President JD Vance, Marco—the whole group worked hard. And I think [India and Pakistan] are actually getting along. Maybe we can even get them together a little bit, Marco, where they go out and have a nice dinner together. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

Trump continued, “We’ve come a long way. Millions of people could have died in that conflict. It started small and was getting bigger by the day.”

This marks the fourth day in a row—Saturday through Tuesday—that Trump has publicly asserted his administration’s role in defusing tensions between the two South Asian rivals, despite consistent denials from the Indian government.

Amid the ongoing border tension with Pakistan, the Punjab Police in India arrested two individuals on espionage charges. They allegedly leaked sensitive information and photographs of Army cantonment areas and Air Bases in Amritsar, said the police on Sunday.

The two persons were identified as Palak Sher Masih and Suraj Masih. They were arrested in a significant counter-espionage operation by the Amritsar Rural Police.

Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav wrote on X, "Malerkotla Police apprehends two individuals for their alleged involvement in espionage activities linked to a Pakistani official posted at the High Commission, New Delhi.

"Acting on credible intelligence, one suspect was arrested for leaking sensitive information regarding Indian Army movements to a Pakistan-based handler. Based on disclosures made during interrogation, a second conduit was also identified and taken into custody.

"Preliminary investigation reveals that the accused had been receiving payments through online transactions in exchange for classified information. They were in frequent contact with the handler and were involved in channeling funds to other local operatives as per his instructions. Two mobile phones have been recovered, and an FIR has been registered."

The police said further investigation will be undertaken as per established protocol, with a focus on tracing the financial trail and identifying additional operatives and linkages within the network.

New Delhi: The government is briefing an all-party meeting on Thursday on the success of "Operation Sindoor" and its aftermath, as top government functionaries and opposition leaders met for a second time in a fortnight amid rising tensions between India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.

Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, S Jaishankar, J P Nadda and Nirmala Sitharaman represented the government, while Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge from the Congress, Sandip Bandyopadhyay of the Trinamool Congress and DMK's T R Baalu were among the leading opposition figures in the meeting.

Other opposition leaders included Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, Sanjay Singh of the AAP, Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Sanjay Raut, NCP (SP)'s Supriya Sule, BJD's Sasmit Patra and CPI(M)'s John Brittas.

JD(U) leader Sanjay Jha, Union minister and LJP (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan and AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi were also part of the meeting.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government wanted to brief all parties on "Operation Sindoor".

In retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack, Indian armed forces carried out missile strikes early Wednesday on nine terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad stronghold of Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba's base Muridke.

The military strikes were carried out under 'Operation Sindoor' two weeks after the massacre of 26 civilians in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam.

The government had earlier called an all-party meeting on April 24 to brief leaders on the attack.