(Image source from: India Today)

The New York Times is facing backlash for calling Pulwama terror attack as ‘an explosion’ in one of their articles.

With an headline ‘In India’s Election Season, an Explosion Interrupts Modi’s Slump’, 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.

After an explosion in Kashmir and weeks of brinkmanship with Pakistan, many Indians are rallying behind Prime Minister Narendra Modi as elections approach [corrects typo] https://t.co/ZoWN6fUcnt

— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) March 12, 2019

However, Twitter users in India outraged over the fact that the leading daily in the United States termed the 14 February attack, which killed over 40 Central Reserve Police Force jawans, as a bombing.

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."

Here Are Some of the Reactions

In bizarre, Orwellian language, the NYT's editors describe a terrorist attack in India as an "explosion" (was it a gas cylinder?) and later quietly change it to "bombing" without correction or explanation pic.twitter.com/7RKNst1UJ6

— Ananth Krishnan (@ananthkrishnan) March 12, 2019

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

“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

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 singh (@vivekbabaji) March 11, 2019

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

— BHARATH KN (@BharathRF) March 12, 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 story's headline has since changed: "In India's Election Season, a Bombing Interrupts Modi's Slump".

The Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed responsibility for the bombing in Pulwama. Within two weeks of the terrorist attack, Indian Mirage 2000 fighters struck a Jaish training camp in Pakistan.

The counterterrorism operation was described by India's Ministry of External Affairs as a pre-emptive strike, but it was widely seen as retaliation for the bombing on February 14.

The mastermind of the 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.

-Sowmya Sangam