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Vajpayee meets families of Indian victims of 9/11

T V Parasuram in New York

A visibly moved Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Wednesday had an emotional meeting with Indian families who lost their relatives in the September 11 terror attacks on the United States last year.

Nearly 20 members of the families of the victims met Vajpayee in his hotel.

Some of them broke down as they sat next to Vajpayee and narrated to him the loss of a husband, a father, a son and a daughter.

Vajpayee told them that 9/11 would always be remembered as the day the terrorists brought the 'issue of terrorism to the consciousness of the world'.

India had been a target of terrorism for long but the world was not ready to listen to it as 'we' warned other nations of the danger, the prime minister said.

Vajpayee said he remembered telling Americans [before the September 11 attacks] during a visit to the United Nations about the dangers of terrorism.

"One prominent American told me that terrorist targets are far away from the US posed no danger to America," Vajpayee recounted.

But after September 11, the Americans have realised that distance or location does not matter to terrorists, who are a menace to the world, the prime minister said.

"Now," said Vajpayee, "the world is fighting terrorism and India is a part of that war."

Consul General Pramatesh Rath told the prime minister that it was difficult to get an exact figure of Indian Americans and people with Indian passports who died in the attack on World Trade Centre twin towers.

Available figures showed there were 117 people of Indian origin among the dead, of whom 17 were Indian passport holders, he said.

He said 1708 people died in the twin towers and another 300 perished in the hijacked planes.

Full Coverage: Vajpayee's Visit to the US

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