'Bizarre, Unreal and Astonishing': Journalists, Politicians Recall 9/11 Attack

On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, we bring you first hand accounts of those who covered and responded to the attacks.

The Big Story Podcast on 9/11 Twenty Year Anniversary. Image used for representation only.

(Photo: Maya Mirchandani/Edited by Arnica Kala, The Quint)

11 September 2001. There was so much destruction, loss and despair that even 20 years later, it is hard to comprehend the magnitude of its impact.

It has been described as the largest military attack ever to hit the United States; everything from books and TV shows to movies and news reports have tried to capture the scale of the tragedy which took place.

On that horrific day, four commercial flights travelling to California were hijacked by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists. What transpired subsequently in less than an hour was a devastating hit on the symbols of America’s military might, intelligence. political power and its financial centre.

The attacks resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths, over 25,000 injuries, long term health effects, a global recession, a fundamental shift in US foreign and security policy, and a 20 year 'forever war' in Afghanistan – which ended with the country run by the very same terrorist organisation running it that had been there when the war began.

On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attack, we bring you first-hand accounts of three people who covered and responded to the attacks.

In this episode, you will hear from Maya Mirchandani, the former senior foreign affairs editor at NDTV who covered the attack on the ground, Sudheendra Kulkarni, aide to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Sanjay Pugalia, the Editorial Director at The Quint.