In the wake of the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, where 26 Hindu tourists were brutally executed by members of the Resistance Front, a Lashkar-e-Taiba proxy supported by Pakistan, the Hindu American Foundation ( HAF ) has harshly condemned what it calls a” shameful and deliberate erasure” by major Western media outlets.
In a scathing rebuke of foreign press coverage following the April 22, 2025, terror attack in Pahalgam, Suhag Shukla, Executive Director of the Hindu American Foundation, said,” Let’s get this straight.” In the worst civil murder in Kashmir since 2008, jihadists from the Resistance Front, a Lashkar-e-Taiba outgrowth, took credit for storming a pasture in Pahalgam and murdering at least 26 tourists while relentlessly hunting down Hindus.
Hindus were massacred in Kashmir by Islamists in a terror attack claimed by a team supported by Pakistan, according to Shukla. Rather, Western media outlets like The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, BBC, Reuters, and AP produced “another workshop in whitewashing, deceiving, fake equivalencies, and revisionist story.”
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You’ll find patronizing grin quotes about a “terror strike” and sanitized references to the murders as militants everywhere, she said. Some even have the effrontery to refer to them as rebels. For the record, a dissident fights the authority, a violent targets the condition, and a terrorist intentionally targets and kills civilians to sputter on fear or adhere to a particular ideology.
Shukla citing survivors ‘ records to show the intellectual bent of the murders. When patients were Hindu, jihadists demanded that they identify their religion, forcibly demanding that they display IDs or perform the Kalma, and then murder them. They purposefully avoided their wives and kids to raise awareness of hate.
The BBC’s portrayal of the patients as “non-Muslims” riled Shukla particularly. The intention is as simple as it gets:” Objective, murder, and terrorize Hindus for an intellectual and spiritual battle.” Please don’t give us the natural conditions and destruction.
The Pahalgam murder fits into a wider pattern of anti-Hindu murder in Kashmir, according to Shukla, which media outlets frequently downplay or ignore. She referred to the ethnic purging of over 350, 000 Kashmiri Tamils in the late 1980s and 1990s and the incidents of Hindu pilgrims at places like Amarnath and Vaishno Devi since 2000, saying that “attacks on Hindus in Kashmir by Pakistan-sponsored jihadists are neither unusual nor random.
Shukla even made a point about the prejudice that Kashmiri Hindus faced before Article 370 was repealed in 2019. Native Hindu Pandits, who were already racially cleansed, were previously prohibited from recovering house. If they married strangers, Kashmiri people were unable to transfer property to their kids. Indians from other parts of the area were unable to live it. And still AP and Reuters call those who want to gain “outsiders”? Had a Californian who relocates to Pennsylvania be referred to as an “immigrant”?
She emphasized that this was not scoundrel violence, noting the functional ties between Lashkar-e-Taiba and The Opposition Front. The Pakistani intelligence company finances, carriages, and directs them. The Falcon Squad of TRF is trained in Pakistan’s L. E. T. tents. Their advertising apparatus uses L. E. T. network to promote Islamabad’s anti-Indian, anti-Hindu agenda.
In a last prosecution, Shukla remarked that” Legacy media’s whitewashing and roll don’t just attack the victims.” It makes it possible for the pretty causes of these crimes. Sometimes you shouldn’t be reporting on terrorism at all if you didn’t call it out for what it is.
World Responses
Following the April 22, 2025 murder in Pahalgam, where 26 Hindu visitors were brutally executed by jihadists from The Opposition Front, international condemnation began to rage. Leaders from all over the world vehemently condemned the attack, with many expressing condolences for India and the victims ‘ families.
Donald Trump, the president of the US, described the incident as” an act of violent contempt” and said,” The United States stands strong with India against violence.” We have Prime Minister Modi’s complete aid and deepest sympathies for the Indian people.
US Vice President JD Vance, who was present in India at the time of the invasion, issued a melancholy statement, calling the murder” an indescribable atrocity.” He added that the jihadists ‘ intentional killing of Hindus was” a warning that spiritual harassment continues to be one of the greatest threats to global peace.”
Members of the Congressional Hindu Caucus from Capitol Hill denounced both the strike and the lack of precision in global media coverage. Tulsi Kapoor, the agent, stated that this is an anti-Hindu love crime. This is not just a terrorist attack. It must be called by the rest of the world.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee Majority directly criticized Western media coverage, particularly The New York Times, by saying,” Hey, @nytimes, we fixed it for you. Simply put, this was a TERRORIST ATTACK. Whether it’s Israel or India, the NYT is cut off from reality when it comes to TERRORISM.
Yet the Taliban condemned the deaths in an unexpected move. A spokesperson said it was “un-Islamic” to attack innocent people as a result of the invasion, and that it was” not acceptable under any circumstances” to intentionally target innocent visitors based on religion.
Officials around the world echoed similar attitudes. It was described as a “heinous work of terror” by French President Emmanuel Macron. The killings were characterized as an “awkward assault on humanity,” according to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. German Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said,” Terrorism that targets faith has no place in our world,” while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz described it as a” cowardly act.”
Additionally, leaders from China, Australia, Nepal, and the European Union issued condemning claims, with many expressing their commitment to India’s counter-terrorism assistance.
India’s answer
The invasion has sparked both national mourning and political connotations in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi blasted the murder as” a crime against humanity” and promised a” sturdy and determined answer.”
The Indus Waters Treaty, India’s most important political tool against Islamabad, was summoned by the Ministry of External Affairs, which ended bilateral contact with the Pakistani minister. Amit Shah, the home secretary, presided over an urgent security assessment and pledged to deepen counter-terror procedures in Kashmir.
Read: Must-read Pas reports
Eyewitnesses ‘ Records in A Horror Road
One of the bloodiest human murders in Jammu &, Kashmir for more than ten years has been carried out in the lovely meadow of Baisaran, 5 kilometers from Pahalgam. Veteran testimony reveals a bleak design: names, spiritual symbols, and even dietary preferences became death-predicting factors.
When he was unable to “prove” his religion, Florida-based programmer Bitan Adhikary was killed in front of his community. His wife, Sohini Adhikary, claimed their trip turned into a dream of gunshots and cries.
Bengaluru programmer Bharath Bhushan, who was also a target, was executed after entering his name. He addressed the attackers by saying,” My name is Bharath.” That was sufficient.
Debasish Bhattacharya, an Assam doctor, recalls:” Overwhelmed by worry, I began chanting the kalma. My scientific fluency in Islamic gospel saved his life. The assailant lowered his weapon a short while later, and we made it out of the forest.
In other situations, large chance was the only saving grace. A Keralan family completely missed the invasion and delayed their journey due to a spicy meal. Difficulty was spared by floods, horses difficulties, and sprangrang flights. After being denied a European card, a newlywed couple chose Kashmir as their honeymoon destination, only to find Himanshi only, bloody, and dazed, beside Lt. Vinay Narwal’s body.
