Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], September 17 (ANI): Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday hailed the bravery and courage of the Indian armed forces during Operation Sindoor, highlighting how under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, no power can 'dare to challenge India's sovereignty'.

The Defence Minister noted how a Jaish-e-Mohammed commander had admitted that the family of the terrorist Masood Azhar was 'destroyed' during the May 7 operation by India, taken out in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.

'The commander of the terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed has admitted that during the Bahawalpur attack during Operation Sindoor, the family of dreaded terrorist Masood Azhar was destroyed. This was the bravery and courage of our Indian Army soldiers. A video of this was also released yesterday. Under the leadership of our Prime Minister Modi, India's strength has grown even further. Therefore, no power can dare to challenge India's sovereignty,' the Unon Minister said in Hyderabad.

Singh was addressing an event to mark the 78th anniversary of Hyderabad Liberation Day, which marks Hyderabad merging with the Indian Union after Operation Polo liberated the city from the Nizam's rule.

The Defence Minister unveiled the statute of Bharat Ratna Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, former Union Home Minister of India, who played a major role in integrating various territories and princely states with the Indian Union after Independence.

Singh further dismissed any claims of a third party being involved between an agreement of cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan. He said that Operation Sindoor will resume if any other terror incident occurs.

'There are some people who say that this ceasefire between India and Pakistan came to be put in place due to someone's interference. I want to make this clear: our action against the terrorists was not postponed because of anyone's interference. Operation Sindoor has been postponed. If any terrorist incident occurs, Operation Sindoor will resume. I want to tell this with confidence to the people of the entire country that regarding stopping this ongoing operation between India and Pakistan, some people claim that we have stopped it, but no one has stopped it,' he said.

Recently in an interview with media outlet AlJazeera Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar had categorically denied any third-party mediation in resolving bilateral issues with Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, contrary to claims made by US President Donald Trump.

In the interview Dar stated that Islamabad has raised the issue of third-party mediation with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to which the US official responded that India does not support any outside involvement.

While the US president has repeated claimed being involved in the ceasefire negotiations, the Ministry of Affairs Minister S Jaishankar dismissed those claims calling them as 'bizarre, if not unfair'.

India has in turn attributed the ceasefire to direct military-to-military talks between Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs). (ANI)