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US media's gross disregard for facts in India-Pakistan conflict
India and Pakistan have a long history of conflict, and religion– Hindu and Muslim– is at the heart of it all.
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Avatans Kumar - Fri, 30, May 2025
- 02:20 EDT
- 125
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Stock image. / istock
India’s air attacks inside Pakistani territory in early May attracted disproportionate attention in Western media compared to the terrorist attack that caused the retaliation in the first place. Indian airstrikes were in response to the terror attack in the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir by Pakistan-based Jihadi terrorists.
The reputable Wall Street Journal (the Journal) covered the news and, as a bonus, also included a couple of articles by its opinion writers over the period. In their reportage and analysis, the Journal thoroughly brushed aside the fact that those killed by the Pakistan-based terrorists in Pahalgam, India, on Apr. 22 were primarily Hindu men. When challenged, the Journal argued in defense that the terrorists’ exclusive targeting of Hindus did not “affect [their columnist’s] point.” The Journal also claimed that “India responded imprudently.”
On that fateful day, twenty-five innocent Hindu tourists, many of them newlyweds, were killed simply for their faith. The Jihadists checked their IDs for their Hindu names, pulled down their pants, or unzipped them so they could verify the circumcision mark, separated them from the rest, and shot them in the head from point-blank range in front of their families. The terrorists also gave the would-be victims the option to recite the kalma, the declaration of Islamic faith often used during religious conversion, to avoid getting killed.
Pakistan-based Islamists have frequently carried out terrorist attacks in India, such as the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, the 2006 Mumbai serial train bombing that killed 209, and the 2008 Mumbai Taj Mahal Hotel attack with 175 deaths, including Americans, with impunity. PM Narendra Modi’s government put a cost on such an attack when his government retaliated against the Pulwama terror attack by destroying terror infrastructure with air strikes inside Pakistan. This time around, on the first day of airstrikes, India struck at nine sites in Pakistan believed to be terrorist infrastructure.
India and Pakistan have a long history of conflict, and religion– Hindu and Muslim– is at the heart of it all. Religion, the “Two-Nation Theory” that Hindus and Muslims are distinct and cannot live together in a secular democracy, is the foundational ideology of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Days before the Apr.22, 2025, attack in Pahalgam, the head of the Pakistani Army reiterated in a speech in Islamabad that Muslims were distinct from Hindus in “all aspects.”
India, on its part, has denied any “mediation” role by any third party, including President Trump, and the Journal has also ignored this. Nor has it sought proof of mediation either from Mr. Trump or his administration.
Historically, Kashmir has been a bilateral issue for India. Prime Minister Modi reiterated that stand in his address to the nation, adding that there are only two issues to be discussed with Pakistan-- terrorism and the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). India’s Minister of External Affairs, Dr. S. Jaishankar, also denied a “ceasefire” role by the US. India’s opposition leader Shashi Tharoor (INC), a Member of Parliament and a former Under Secretary General of the United Nations, also rubbished President Trump’s claim of brokering a ceasefire deal and stopping a potential nuclear war on the David Frum Show.
Journal commentators also bring in the so-called “jingoistic Indian media” into the conversation, knowing fully well that India is a responsible nuclear state and has no history of aggression against any country. India’s strikes, though deep inside the Pakistani territory, were precision attacks that have now been independently verified. The US media, on the other hand, did everything it could to escalate a full-blown war with Russia when they openly lobbied for strikes against Russia in the Russo-Ukrainian war.
(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of New India Abroad)
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