New Delhi– The U.S. government has criticized a major American news outlet for its coverage of the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, where 26 people were brutally killed.
The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee sharply rebuked The New York Times for downplaying the severity of the incident by referring to the attackers as “militants” and “gunmen” rather than labeling them as “terrorists.”
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the Committee shared an image of The New York Times headline — “At Least 24 Tourists Gunned Down by Militants in Kashmir” — with the word “militants” struck out and replaced in bold red text with “terrorists.”
“Hey, @nytimes, we fixed it for you. This was a TERRORIST ATTACK, plain and simple. Whether it’s India or Israel, when it comes to TERRORISM, the NYT is removed from reality,” the Committee wrote.
This unusually forceful response follows the deadly assault in Pahalgam, where Hindus were reportedly targeted and killed. The Resistance Front — an offshoot of the banned Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba — has claimed responsibility for the attack.
According to reports, gunmen opened fire on a group of tourists in the Baisaran Valley, killing 26 people and injuring several others, including a tourist from Nepal. Videos from the scene have circulated widely, showing chaos and panic as attackers fired indiscriminately into the crowd.
The New York Times, in its coverage, referred to the assailants as “militants” and “gunmen” and described the incident as a “shooting.” The report noted that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called it a “terror attack” and pledged to bring those responsible to justice. However, the framing of the incident as a “shooting” rather than a terrorist attack sparked backlash from U.S. officials.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump called Prime Minister Modi to express his condolences and pledged full U.S. support in pursuing those behind the attack.
“President Trump strongly condemned the terror attack and expressed full support to India to bring the perpetrators of this heinous act to justice. India and the United States stand together in the fight against terror,” said Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, in a post on X.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance also called Prime Minister Modi, echoing the condemnation and reaffirming America’s solidarity with India in its fight against terrorism. (Source: IANS)
