New York Times calls Pulwama terror attack 'explosion' in headline: Was 9/11 just a plane crash, asks outraged Twitterati

Twitterati slammed leading US daily The New York Times for dubbing Pulwama terror attack as ‘a explosion’ in one of their articles. Headlined  In India’s Election Season, a Bombing Interrupts Modi’s Slump and authored by Jeffrey Gettleman, Vindu Goel and Maria Abi-Habib, The New York Times article argues how the 14 February Pulwama terror attack came at a time when questions related to rising unemployment, agrarian crisis and a slow economic were making the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party vulnerable ahead of Lok Sabha election 2019 . 

Twitter users in India outraged over the fact that the leading US daily termed the 14 February attack, which killed over 40 CRPF jawans, as a bombing. Twitterati was livid at the fact that NYT chose to use words like ’explosion’ and ‘bombing’ to describe a serious terrorist suicide attack which saw escalation in India-Pakistan hostilities. Following the Pulwama terror attack, Indian Air Force conducted a non-military, pre-emptive strike on Pakistan’s Balakot where camps organised by terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed were flourishing. The article notes: “The fact that India’s airstrikes probably missed their targets, and that a fighter jet was shot down by Pakistan, doesn’t seem to matter to most Indians. Their country was hit, and Mr. Modi hit back.” Twitter was abuzz with comments:

Suicide terrorist who killed 40 humans ....is rather more than an explosion.
Tell us @nytimes , is a prerequisite to calling it a terror attack is white people dead ? https://t.co/8lrSOmlRVg

— Harini Calamur (@calamur) March 12, 2019

More from World

Why do you see what I see? Now machine model can tell the colour the brain hints at 7.4 magnitude earthquake rocks Russia's east coast, prompts tsunami alerts

“An explosion”, I Guess going by NYT’s lexicon the twin towers fell due to a “mishap”. American media outlets have lost the plot when it comes to reporting in the sub continent. https://t.co/Tt3eEZC8Ep

— ishaan prakash (@ishaan_ANI) March 11, 2019

So for @nytimesworld #Pulwama was an just an explosion! And of course 9/11 must have been just a plane crash.... https://t.co/4JfzNkDMYq

— Shannu Kaw (@ShannuKaw) March 12, 2019

If Pulwama Attack is just an explosion then 9/11 is just accident made by drunk pilot.

— BHARATH (@BharathRF) March 12, 2019

If the incident in Pulwama was just an explosion, then 9/11 was a plane crash. My condolences to the Al-Qaeda workers who lost their precious lives just because of a stupid building.

— Sanjay Gautam (@Sanjayg551) March 11, 2019

if pulwama was an explosion, 9/11 was a plane crash? it's very insensitive of NYT to make light of the losses we suffer from islamic terrorism!

— vivek raj (@vivekbabaji) March 11, 2019

Troubling that @nytimes chooses to describe a terrorist suicide attack as ‘an explosion.’ What’s next? Describing a beheading as ‘loss of a human head?’ @gettleman @nytimesworld https://t.co/1qolfH4KAy

— Husain Haqqani (@husainhaqqani) March 12, 2019

The mastermind of the 14 February Pulwama terror attack was killed in an encounter in south Kashmir’s Tral area, officials said on Monday. Jaish terrorist Mudassir Ahmed Khan was one of the two militants killed in the encounter in Tral’s Pinglish area that started Sunday evening and went on till the early hours of Monday, they said. The body of the second militant has not been identified yet, said the officials, who had earlier claimed he was Sajjad Bhat, a JeM operative whose car was used in the Pulwama attack. Bhat’s brother refused to take the body, saying it was charred beyond recognition. Khan’s body has been taken by his family members, the officials said. Khan was the “main conspirator” of the attack on the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy in Pulwama, Lieutenant-General Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon, General Officer Commanding, XV Corps, said at a hurriedly called joint press conference by the Army, state police and the paramilitary force. With inputs from agencies