KARACHI, 12 September 2003 — When the World Trade Center came under attack on Sept. 11, 2001, New York police cadet Mohammad Salman Hamdani drove across the city, parked his two-door Toyota a few blocks away, then rushed into the eye of the storm.

Like hundreds of others, he died heroically trying to help the thousands of people trapped inside.

Two years after the terror strikes in the United States — and 17 months after Hamdani’s funeral in New York — his relatives in Pakistan still hope that he will return home to them. “It may sound a little strange to others but we all believe he will return one day as we all have seen him in dreams coming back to us,” his uncle, Anis Hamdani said, choking back tears.

Anis lives in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, where Mohammad was born and lived for 13 months before his parents migrated to the United States, where his father ran a convenience store in Brooklyn and they still live. Anis said Mohammad and his two brothers were American citizens, but raised to remember their roots in Pakistan and have pride in “being Muslims.”

Anis, 56, said that when he heard about the jetliners crashing into the Twin Towers, he wasn’t very concerned — until he received a frantic call from his younger brother Salim — Mohammad’s father.

“Pray to God my son returns as we are waiting for him with all doors open,” he recalled Salim telling him.

But DNA tests later confirmed that remains found at ground zero were those of Mohammad. He was buried on Long Island on April 5, 2002.

Pakistan was once the strongest international supporter of the Taleban militia in Afghanistan that had harbored Osama Bin Laden and his terror network. Pakistan switched sides and became an ally of the United States after the attacks.

The Taleban were subsequently ousted by US-led forces in late 2001, but suspicions still linger that followers of both radical groups find sanctuary inside Pakistan, although the government itself denies any complicity.

Anis is bitter about the Sept. 11 attacks that took his nephew’s life. He calls the perpetrators inhuman and unworthy to be followers of Islam, the predominant religion in Pakistan. “They were just terrorists and killed innocent people,” he said. “Such people have no religion.”

Yet like many Pakistanis, he is disenchanted with America’s war on terrorism.

“They failed to arrest those held responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks and instead again innocent people were killed in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Anis said.

Anis says he’s proud that his nephew died trying to help others from the inferno of World Trade Center. “When people were running away from the collapsing towers he was among those rushing in to rescue the trapped people,” he said.

He also recalled with pride the funeral in New York, attended by hundreds of police officers who saluted as Mohammad’s coffin was lowered into the grave.

“I was forced to attend,” he said, tears rolling down his face. “I am still uncertain and just hope that maybe it was someone else we buried.”