If Pakistan does anything more, our response will be far stronger, PM Modi told US VP Vance

NEW DELHI: PM Modi is learnt to have told US vice-president J D Vance on Friday, "If they (Pakistan) do anything more, our response will be far stronger" when the latter called him up to convey what US intelligence had gathered about Pakistan's intent to massively escalate hostilities.

If Vance had expected that his dire message about the offensive intent of a nuclear-armed country would get Modi to lower the ante, he was mistaken. So, when Pakistan indeed widened the theatre a few hours later, India struck back by carrying out precision strikes at multiple PAF airbases, laying bare its air defence.

The successful execution of Modi's intent was what forced Pakistan to approach India for pausing hostilities. India agreed, but after laying down its 'if you don't act, we don't act; but if you act, we react strongly' bottomline.

Sources also feel Pakistan's alleged threat, which dramatically moved Vance from terming the conflict as "fundamentally none of our business" just a day before to playing the concerned mediator, may have been part of its by now familiar playbook to tap into the West's fears of a nuclear conflagration.

New Delhi, however, did not indulge Washington's activism. Sources said external affairs minister S Jaishankar made it clear to US secretary of state Marco Rubio that if Pakistan wanted to talk, it could directly approach the DGMO here.