WASHINGTON: Twenty-five years ago, on a bright September morning, America woke up to a different world. I was in Washington.
I was asleep when John Hendel, our news editor at the American news agency where I worked, called.
“There have been attacks of Biblical proportions in New York and Washington,” he said. “Go out and see what is happening. But come back and sleep. We have transferred you to the news desk. You’ll be doing night shifts.”
The remaining tower of the World Trade Centre, Tower 2, collapses in a cloud of dust and debris about a half hour after the first tower fell, in New York City, the US on September 11, 2001. — Reuters/File
My wife, Bushra, and I went out. We lived in downtown Washington, and the city suddenly looked unfamiliar. Armoured personnel carriers stood at crossroads and strategic points. Men in uniform were everywhere. The capital of the world’s most powerful country looked like a city preparing for war.
