Mohammad Salman Hamdani
Pakistan

"This tragedy really united, and reunited the diversity in America"

Mohammad Salman Hamdani was born in Karachi, Pakistan and moved to America when he was only 13 months old. Equally proud of his Muslim heritage and American citizenship, Mr. Hamdani was a compassionate, warm-hearted young man whose greatest desire in life was to help others. And he did just that on September 11, even though it cost him his life.

September 11, 2001 began as any other day for the 23-year-old New Yorker. He got on the train to go to his research job at Rockefeller University, but then disappeared. No one was sure what became of Salman Hamdani until six months later, on March 20, 2002, when his remains were positively identified at the site of the World Trade Center. It is believed that the part-time ambulance driver, police cadet and incoming medical student heard about the attack on his way to work, and immediately rushed over to see if he could help. "That's him," his mother, Talaat, now says. "He would have gone down anyway, even if he were home. No matter where he was, even if he were in California, he would have flown down to help." 

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