New Delhi: The United States paused on September 11, 2026, to mark 25 years since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, holding solemn ceremonies at Ground Zero in New York, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The US vice-president, JD Vance, attended the New York commemoration, while the president, Donald Trump, travelled to the Pentagon to mark the day for the second year running.
A quarter-century earlier, al-Qaida hijackers had flown two passenger jets into the World Trade Centre’s twin towers, a third into the Pentagon, and forced a fourth to crash near Shanksville after passengers fought back against their captors. The attacks claimed the lives of 2,977 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and another 9,000 people have died from 9/11-related illnesses over the last 25 years, largely from exposure to toxic dust at the sites.
This year’s milestone carried particular weight. About half of US adults regard 9/11 as the most historic event of their lifetime, according to a recent poll, a figure that underlines how deeply the day continues to shape American public memory.
A quarter of a century on, the wound has clearly not closed.
The main commemoration ceremony on the memorial plaza in lower Manhattan centred on family members reading the names of the dead aloud, punctuated by seven moments of silence marking each strike on the towers, their collapse, the attack on the Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93, as well as a tribute to those who later died of related illness. The programme began at 8.30am EDT (6pm IST), with the first silence observed at 8.46am EDT (6.16pm IST), the moment the first hijacked aircraft struck the North Tower.
Numerous serving and former officials joined the New York ceremony, including the senator, Chuck Schumer; the former president, Bill Clinton; the former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton; the former first lady, Michelle Obama; and the former president, Barack Obama. New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, was also present alongside three of his predecessors, Bill de Blasio, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg, and shook hands with Giuliani shortly before proceedings began, despite the latter having publicly urged the city’s first Muslim mayor to stay away.
Away from Manhattan, Trump used the Pentagon ceremony to address service members and victims’ families, while a separate observance in Shanksville honoured the 40 passengers and crew of United Flight 93, who are widely credited with preventing the hijacked aircraft from reaching Washington.
Commemorations also extended well beyond the three attack sites, ranging from beams of light projected from New Hampshire’s Mount Washington to a memorial stair climb at Mississippi State University’s football stadium and a ceremony at Honolulu’s own 9/11 memorial. New York’s Tribute in Light, twin beams recalling the fallen towers, was scheduled to shine from dusk until dawn the following morning.
Modi pays tribute
The anniversary drew tributes well beyond American shores. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, marked the occasion with a message on X, describing the attacks as horrific and expressing solidarity with the families whose lives had been permanently altered by that day’s events.
Modi used the moment to draw a direct line between the 9/11 attacks and India’s own long confrontation with terrorism. He noted that India, as a victim of cross-border terrorism for decades, remained committed to opposing the phenomenon in all its forms, and reports suggest his remarks implicitly referenced episodes such as the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 and the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which killed 166 people. Alongside his statement, he shared photographs from his 2014 visit to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York.
The US ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, separately echoed calls for solidarity and zero tolerance towards terrorism, while the junior minister, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, issued his own statement stressing the need for countries to stand united against the threat. The exchange of messages reflects a counter-terrorism relationship between New Delhi and Washington that has deepened steadily since 2001, from intelligence-sharing arrangements built up after 26/11 to joint statements at successive Quad and bilateral summits naming Pakistan-based groups directly. Whether that cooperation translates into concrete action on cross-border terror financing and extradition requests remains, as ever, the harder test than anniversary statements alone.