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Basharat Peer in New Delhi
The image of the World Trade Centre being consumed by fire and crumbling like a candy pillar and smoke rising from the Pentagon after being hit by a terrorist plane flashed on thousands of television sets in Indian households on Tuesday.
And shock and disbelief were the only reactions.
The number of heads glued to television sets increased as the reports started coming in. Be it the attack on Pentagon -- the symbol of American power -- or the report of the car bombing in front of the State Department building.
Everyone was curious and was speculating as to who could have committed the ghastly acts and how would America react.
But there were some Indians for whom there were no words. They jumped for their phones or logged onto the net in a desperate attempt to ascertain the safety of their loved ones in New York.
"I have been trying to get in touch with my sister ever since I saw the news. It is maddening. I do not know how they are. There is just no news. I logged on to the net, but none of my relatives is online," Shailini Singh, a south Delhi girl whose sister lives in New York, said.
Ravi Bhaskar had no words. His father had gone to meet some relatives in New York. "They do not work in the World Trade Centre. But I fear for their safety."
The reports of the Newark-San Francisco flight crashing in Pittsburgh were giving nightmares to a research scholar at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
"My brother-in-law travels by that flight almost every day. I am desperately trying his numbers but the communications are jammed. No phone seems to be working. I have called my parents thrice, but even they do not have any news." she said.
Doubts, uncertainties and half-information are making things worse. Mujahid Khan's best friend worked with a multinational company, whose office was at the at the World Trade Centre.
"I do not know where he was then. I wish he was one of the people who escaped," he said.
The Attack on America: The Complete Coverage
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