In 2008, the BBC was criticised for referring to the men who carried out the November 2008 Mumbai attacks as "gunmen", rather than "terrorists," used to describe the attacks in UK. In protest against the use of the word "gunmen" by the BBC, the journalist Mobashar Jawed "M.J." Akbar refused to take part in an interview after the Mumbai attacks and criticised the BBC's reportage of the incident. The British parliamentarian Stephen Pound has supported the claims by referring to the BBC's whitewashing of the terror attacks as "the worst sort of mealy mouthed posturing. It is desperation to avoid causing offence which ultimately causes more offence to everyone".