'It's a terror attack': US House Committee slams NYT's Pahalgam report
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New Delhi: The US government has strongly condemned a major American media outlet for its portrayal of the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which claimed 26 lives.
The US House Foreign Affairs Committee criticised The New York Times for allegedly minimising the severity of the attack by opting for terms like "militants" and "gunmen" instead of "terrorists".
In a post on X, the Committee expressed its disapproval of the newspaper's language, sharing an image of the original headline – "At Least 24 Tourists Gunned Down by Militants in Kashmir" – with the word "militants" struck out and replaced in bold red 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 US Committee wrote.
This unprecedented reaction follows the horrific terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. The attack, which claimed 26 lives and left several others injured, was later claimed by 'The Resistance Front', an offshoot of the banned Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The terrorists opened fire on a group of tourists in the Baisaran Valley, with the casualties including a Nepali tourist. Visuals from the scene, widely circulated in the media, depict chaos and panic, with some attackers caught on video firing indiscriminately.
The New York Times, in its report, referred to the terrorists as "militants" and "gunmen", noting that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi "called the shooting, the worst against civilians in the region for years, a 'terror attack' and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice". The framing of the attack as merely a "shooting" has drawn strong objections from several quarters of the US government.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump called Prime Minister Modi to express his condolences and offer full support in bringing the perpetrators to justice.
"President Trump strongly condemned the terror attack and expressed full support to India to bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous attack. India and the United States stand together in the fight against terror," said Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, in a post on X.
US Vice President JD Vance also called PM Modi, condemning the terror attack, and reiterated solidarity with India in its fight against terrorism.
(inputs from IANS)
