New York, Sep 11 (PTI) A solemn ceremony commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9/11 was held at Ground Zero here on Friday, attended by all four living former US presidents, Vice President J D Vance and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The commemoration was held at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in Lower Manhattan, Ground Zero, where the former twin towers of the World Trade Centre stood before planes hijacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists crashed into them on a crisp September 11 morning in 2001.
The ceremony was attended by Vance, along with all living former US Presidents and the First Ladies — Bill and Hillary Clinton, George and Laura Bush, Barack and Michelle Obama and Joe and Jill Biden — as well as by Mamdani, the first Muslim mayor of New York City.
Other officials, members of law enforcement, police and fire department personnel and friends and families of victims and mourners also attended the ceremony.
As happens every year, names of the victims who died in the 9/11 attacks were read aloud at the solemn ceremony.
Seven moments of silence were observed and bells tolled at the exact minutes marking the crashes into the North and South Towers and the Pentagon, the collapse of the towers, and when passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 launched a counterattack on hijackers aboard their plane in their attempt to seize control of the aircraft. The plane crashed into an empty field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
A seventh moment of silence was also observed, honouring those who died from health effects in the aftermath of the attacks.
Mamdani began the 25th year commemoration of the September 11 attacks by paying homage to the more than 300 members of the city’s fire department who had risked their lives while responding to the burning towers and saving countless lives.
In a video message, Mamdani described September 11 as a “horrific act of terror and a day of immeasurable loss.” “We remember 9/11 as the darkest day in our city’s history, but we also remember what so many New Yorkers did in that darkness,” he said.
Mamdani recalled the service of thousands of New Yorkers who lined up for hours to donate blood after the attacks, people who opened their homes to those who could not get home, “workers who carried their colleagues down hundreds of stairs, then turned around and went back up to find someone else who needed help”.
A quarter of a century after the 9/11 attacks, Mamdani said, “We have a sacred obligation to those who were stolen from us to care for one another as they cared for strangers, to live lives worthy of the sacrifices they made, and to build a city worthy of their courage-a city where we run toward one another. That is how we remember.” In the days leading up to the 9/11 anniversary, there were calls by various groups for Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim and South Asian Mayor, not to attend the memorial service at Ground Zero.
Several family members of those killed on 9/11 launched an online petition expressing “concern” regarding the potential inclusion of Mamdani in the 25th-year commemorative events.
“This anniversary is one of remembrance grounded in shared American values: respect for the victims, recognition of the gravity of the attacks, and a clear rejection of the ideologies that contributed to such violence. For many families and community members, participation in these ceremonies carries an implicit expectation that those present uphold and affirm these principles without ambiguity,” the petition said.
“Concerns have been raised about Mr Mamdani’s public positions, associations, and responses to rhetoric that many perceive as hostile to these shared values,” it said. PTI YAS GRS GRS GRS
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