Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan People’s Party chief Bilawal Bhutto have both praised United States President Donald Trump for his role in what they described as “de-escalating the tension” during the recent military confrontation with India. The leaders also talked about renewed bilateral ties with the US and urged Washington to facilitate a comprehensive dialogue between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, India and Pakistan.

India has denied that President Trump played any role in the agreement to stop on-ground hostilities after the military conflict with Pakistan in the wake of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that saw 26 people dead and consistently rejects third-party mediation on bilateral issues.

Sharif was speaking at an event at the US embassy in Islamabad while Bilawal Bhutto was speaking with US-based Pakistani journalists in Washington on Wednesday.

Dawn reported that PM Sharif had claimed that the recent four-day conflict had revealed the “Pahalgam incident was a false-flag operation”, and credited President Trump for playing a decisive role in ensuring a ceasefire. Sharif said that the US President had shown beyond any doubt that “he is a man for peace… and beneficial business deals”. “President Trump is a man against escalation and a man against cold and hot war,” he added.

“Our offer for an impartial international probe into the Pahalgam incident was met with aggression instead,” he claimed and added, India “should have come out with solid evidence and convinced the world about the incident.”

Dawn also reported that the former foreign minister Bilawal, who is leading a Pakistani delegation that began a three-day visit to Washington on Wednesday, said President Trump “deserves credit” for helping facilitate the ceasefire between Pakistan and India last month.

“We should also pay attention to what the US president is saying. On 10 different occasions, he has taken credit for facilitating the ceasefire between India and Pakistan — and rightly so. He deserves that credit, because it was his efforts that helped make the ceasefire possible,”

he said.