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When Little Pakistan Fled America
NEW YORK — Like the rest of America and the world, "Little Pakistan" will always remember 9/11 but for people in the small New York neighborhood the date also marks another tragedy when their community started to vanish.
"This was a great place for us, but when the mistrust started, people didn't want to take chances," Abdul Sageer, a Pakistani-born resident of the Brooklyn suburb of Coney Island Avenue, told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Tuesday, September 9.
"They picked up and left."
When the two hijacked planes struck the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 2001, the lives of thousands of people living in the once-thriving area New Yorkers call Little Pakistan changed forever.
A backlash, FBI raids, special registration requirements for immigrants and a wave of street-level abuse forced many people to flee and Little Pakistan gradually turned into a ghost neighborhood.
"Look at all the free parking spaces," Sayyed Shah, who owns a company offering legal services in Little Pakistan, said staring at the empty sidewalk outside his office.
"This place used to be jammed. People double-parked. It was crowded," he recalls bitterly.
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"They picked up and left."
When the two hijacked planes struck the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 2001, the lives of thousands of people living in the once-thriving area New Yorkers call Little Pakistan changed forever.
A backlash, FBI raids, special registration requirements for immigrants and a wave of street-level abuse forced many people to flee and Little Pakistan gradually turned into a ghost neighborhood.
"Look at all the free parking spaces," Sayyed Shah, who owns a company offering legal services in Little Pakistan, said staring at the empty sidewalk outside his office.
"This place used to be jammed. People double-parked. It was crowded," he recalls bitterly.
More
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