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“Truck Mows Down”: The Hindu Secularizes New Orleans ISIS Terror Attack Much Like Coimbatore “Cylinder Blast”

January 3, 2025
The Commune

In its report on the New Orleans terror attack, where a pickup truck driven by ISIS-linked Shamsud-Din Jabbar killed 14 and injured 35, The Hindu framed the incident as a vehicular mishap with the headline: “Truck mows down 10 New Year revellers in New Orleans”. This framing, which omitted the attacker’s ideological motive and terror links, has been widely criticized for downplaying the incident’s true nature.

By focusing on the vehicle rather than the deliberate act of terrorism, The Hindu mirrored its earlier coverage of events like the 2022 Coimbatore terror attack, which it labelled a “car blast,” ignoring the broader terror implications. Such editorial choices, critics argue, obscure accountability, trivialize victims’ suffering and foster a dangerous narrative of denial around ideologically driven violence.

New Orleans Attack on New Year’s

In the early hours of 1 January 2025, a tragic attack unfolded on Bourbon Street in New Orleans during New Year’s celebrations. A pickup truck, driven at high speed, rammed into a crowded area in the French Quarter, killing at least 14 people and injuring over 35 others. The attacker, identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar from Texas, was fatally shot by police after a gunfight that left two officers injured.

Authorities revealed Jabbar had served in the U.S. Army and allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS in a series of videos recorded prior to the incident. An ISIS flag and potential homemade explosives were discovered in his vehicle, prompting the FBI to investigate the attack as an act of terrorism.

The vehicle, rented through Turo, was a white Ford F-150 electric pickup. Witnesses described the deliberate nature of the attack, with the truck crashing through barricades at high speed. Despite heavy police presence in the area, the attacker managed to cause significant damage before being neutralized.

The attack disrupted preparations for the Sugar Bowl, a major college football game, which was postponed as a security precaution.

This incident has drawn comparisons to similar attacks, including a recent attack at a Christmas market in Germany.

How The Hindu Reported The Terror Attack

Similar to other reports in the news media about such lone-wolf terror attacks in the past by leftist news media such as the below, The Hindu, not wanting to be left behind, also carried similar headlines to the same news story.

This is how The Hindu reported the New Orleans terror attack. The print headline read, “Truck mows down 10 New Year revellers in New Orleans“. The online version of the article has the headline “Truck mows down 15 New Year revellers in New Orleans; suspect is U.S.-born army veteran” – could have been changed after backlash.

Back in 2017, a terror attack occurred at the UK Parliament, the then-leftist NDTV also reported it similarly – denying the terror, denying the attack, as if the car drove itself and people died because they came in the way.

The Hindu’s headline and way of reporting reminds us of how the 2022 Coimbatore terror attack by Jameesha Mubin was downplayed by the DMK government and the Tamil news media as a “cylinder blast“. In fact, The Hindu had also reported it as a “car blast” and did not acknowledge properly that it was a terror attack.

The consistent whitewashing of crimes by The Hindu is not limited to these terror attacks. The publication has also been noticed secularizing news reports regarding sexual crime perpetrators, especially if they are from a particular community.

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