Jihad's death shakes officials awake as pipe mouth sealed off

The mouth of the deep tubewell pipe has finally been sealed off but not before it claimed the life of a 4-year old 'Jihad'.

The deep tube-well, owned by the railways, was abandoned as it did not pump out water.

However, its mouth was kept wide open, enough for a small child to go all the way down several hundred feet.

Railways Director General Tofazzal Hossain on Friday night said a new deep tube-well was being installed nearby without sealing the old one.

"In such cases, it is mandatory to close the abandoned pipe's entrance," he told bdnews24.com.

It is clear that the entrance would have been kept open had Jihad not fallen down.

Jihad fell through the pipe's 14-inch wide entrance on Friday afternoon.

Rescuers called off their 23-hour long search around 2:30pm on Saturday but locals refused to give up.

They finally pulled out Jihad around 3pm but by then he was dead.

Doctors at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital said the child had died several hours before he was taken there.

Contractor firm SR House that was installing the new tube-well has been blacklisted.

Railways Senior Deputy Assistant Engineer Jahangir Alam, in charge of the project, was dismissed on Friday.

After Jihad's rescue, authorities welded the pipe's entrance.

By then, agitated locals vandalised shops around the accident spot and WASA's temporary establishments.