NY mayor joins Hindu gathering for prayer

New York, Nov 29 (UNI) Mayor Michael R Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn today joined hundreds of Indian-Americans to pray for the departed souls in the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

He joined a prayer meeting organised over the weekend at the city's famous Ganesh temple where five priests recited the prayer seeking peace to those killed and their families.

Mr Bloomberg compared the Mumbai strikes with that of New York's September 11, 2001 attacks. 'It is not just India's matter, but it is a global issue', the mayor said in his brief remarks on the occasion.

Around 800 people, many of them senior citizens, attended the prayer session.

The mayor also asked the gathering and other New Yorkers of all faiths to pray for the city's two Jewish couple who died in the Mumbai attacks.

The Two New Yorkers namely Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife Rivka were killed but their two-year-old son was saved by his nanny during the Nariman House violence.

''This is a tragic loss for the Lubavitch (Jewish) community and for our entire city. We will continue to pray for all of them and for all the people of Mumbai, for an immediate end to the violence, and for the release of all hostages,''he said in a statement earlier yesterday.

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