According to TOI, stone pelters didn’t kill tourist in Kashmir, earphones did?

Kashmir Tourist killed by stone pelter

A 22-year-old tourist from Chennai became a victim of Islamist stone pelters of Kashmir on Monday after he died owing to critical injuries he suffered at their hands. This incident happened when the bus carrying him and other tourists came under the attack from a mob of stone pelters.

After the pelted stones caused serious head injuries to Thirumani Selvan, he was rushed to Sheri Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences in Srinagar. But he, unfortunately, succumbed to his injuries.

Following this incident, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti met Thirumani’s grieving family to offer her condolences and commented that her head hung in shame.

The Times of India though seems slightly unaware of the immeasurable grief of Thirumani’s family, as they have now carried an article whose headline insinuated the newspaper’s alleged attempt to blame the victim:

Times of India headline Via @TOI

As seen above, the headline of the TOI report insinuates that the “Tamil Nadu tourist’s” decision to wear headphones while travelling in the bus, was supposedly the contributing reason for death. This angle was also peddled in the story’s content, in the following manner:

Immersed in music when the stones were being pelted, Selvan didn’t hear his father shout

Predictably people were not happy at TOI’s reporting and reacted accordingly:

https://twitter.com/GoverdhanSinghS/status/994085687329787904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/iMac_too/status/994085606153228288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/ShefVaidya/status/994112423098433536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/MakrandParanspe/status/994122167292850176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/SujoyGhosh1729/status/994132348701626368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Such an act of victim blaming by TOI also may lead people to question whether the publication was trying to deflect attention from the radical stone pelters, who committed the brutal crime? And in order to do so, did it figure out a way to deflect the blame onto the earphones and the person wearing them.

OpIndia Staff: Staff reporter at OpIndia