for somereason europeans call people from the middle east and southwest asia, Asians even tho they could be arab or aryan :p
They refer to people from India and Pakistan as Asians because those countries are on the Asian continent. (But they normally refer to them as "South Asians.") That does make them Asians. But I think this article left something out of the description because the earlier articles were more specific. In another article I read on this story, the other passengers described the men as "south Asians," which narrows it down quite a bit -- meaning India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc. -- countries with large Muslim populations.
The term "south Asian" would never be taken broadly to include anyone from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, etc, because they would be referred to as "southeast Asians," nor would it include anyone from Japan, Korea, China, etc, becasue they would be referred to as "East Asian."
Yeah, those idiots think people that live in Asia are called Asians.
Asian is a race, not a continental designation! (/sarc)