Sensational search for 'trapped' 4-year old boy in the lurch

Rescuers have failed to find a 4-year old child purportedly trapped several hundred feet down an abandoned deep tubewell at Dhaka's Shahjahanpur despite frantic efforts unfolding all night long before a captivated nation.

Around 3am Saturday, Fire Service and Civil Defence Director General Ali Ahmed Khan told reporters they lowered a borehole camera down the pipe and searched for an hour without success.

The development has given rise to speculation as to whether it is a hoax.

The sensational, complex operation captured the imagination of millions who watched live TV broadcasts and sparked prayers as the gripping story continued to take puzzling twists and turns.

The story broke into national prominence after the child reportedly fell into the hole adjacent to a playground at the Shahjahanpur Railway Colony Friday afternoon.

He was playing with friends, his father said. Most TV channels suspended regular coverage to devote nearly all air time to the rescue effort.

The 14-inch wide pipe, covered only with an empty jute sack, is just wide enough to fit the boy and too narrow for an adult.

A little before Fire Service DG Khan, State Minister for Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal had also made similar remarks.

"It seemed to me no-one is down there. But the debris in there will be checked. The Fire Service DG will run some more checks. But I'm sure there is nobody down there," he said.

In the first attempt, the borehole camera identified a piece of cloth, sandals, pieces of cork sheet, a common lizard and pieces of paper around 250 metre down.

A private farm in a second attempt dropped another camera around the same level but did not find Jihad.

The development on the 12th hour of the rescue operation generated confusion among the people gathered there. Some others suspect whether the child had really fallen into the deep shaft.

Journalists also started questioning the firefighters' claim that they provided the 'trapped child some food, juice and milk in the evening'.

The Fire Service DG, however, only responded by saying they would continue their search until they were absolutely sure about the outcome.

After Jihad fell down the pit, journalists thronged the scene sparking a media frenzy since the afternoon and three units of firefighters rushed in to rescue him.

Several other units also joined them later.

Jihad's father Nasir Fakir works as a security guard at the Motijheel School and College. They live in the same colony.

He told reporters that a neighbour told him that Jihad fell inside the pipe around 3:30pm while playing.

Two residents of the colony, 'Rahela' and 'Arif', also confirmed the fall to reporters.

As time went by, TV reports quoted rescuers as saying that the boy responded to their calls several times and they provided him with some food and bottled juice and milk.

Fresh oxygen was also pumped into the water well pump while they dropped a torch down as the evening fell.

Since Friday afternoon, firefighters had made five abortive rescue attempts to bring Jihad up using rope.

People waited with bated breath as TV reports quoted rescuers saying Jihad had managed to get his hands on the rope several times, but not long enough to be reeled up.

Hundreds of thousands of people were glued to their televisions and news websites and praying for his safety as dozens of rescuers worked day and night to save Jihad from inside the abandoned well.

Police had trouble managing the large number of onlookers who gathered there.

Besides being caught on camera, the story took social networking sites by storm.

Jihad is the youngest of his parents' three children. His mother Khadiza Begum, struck by grief, sat speechless in their house crowded by the neighbours.

Residents said the deep tubewell was declared abandoned when it stopped pumping up water. A new deep tubewell and pump were being installed near it by the Bangladesh Railway.

WASA drainage department's Assistant Engineer Abdul Mannan told bdnews24.com that the pump was railways' but its structure was same as the WASA's.

From the surface, the pipe is 14 inches wide for around 300 feet underground. It is followed by a 'submersible pump' and filter. This whole installation is called 'housing'.

After that, the pipe is three inches wide and has gone over 300 feet underground.

The rescue attempts continued with the belief that Jihad was stuck on the 'housing' level.

Fire Service Director (Operations) Maj Shakil Newaz, who led the rescue efforts, told reporters that their attempts to save the boy were facing obstruction as the hole was not that wide and had another three inches wide pipe inside the first one.

As the plan to use rope failed, rescuers uprooted the smaller pipe, which had gone nearly 300 feet deep, using a crane and created more space after 11pm on Friday.

Rescuers then planned to send one of their men down the pipe with a camera and light, but it was later dropped considering safety issues.

Soon, a team from BUET's mechanical engineering department arrived at the scene with an alternative plan.

The Fire Service and Civil Defence director general told reporters that they wanted to try the BUET team's plan.

The work to build the 'catcher' at the end of another pipe, smaller in width, had also started.

Amidst all this, Bangladesh Railway fired Senior Sub-Assistant Engineer Jahangir Alam who was the in charge of the deep tubewell project.

Project contractor, SR House, which was installing the tubewell, was also blacklisted for not sealing the abandoned well's mouth properly.

Apart from the junior home minister, WASA Director General Engineer Taksim A Khan, DMP Commissioner Benazir Ahmed, BNP Standing Committee member Mirza Abbas and Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique also visited the scene.

As the search with the cameras down the pipe began, the Directorate General of Health Services had a medical team stand by at the spot to meet Jihad's emergency needs once he was rescued.

But after ceaseless search, the state minister for home told reporters that Jihad could not be found.

The rescue effort lost steam after that as confusion arose.

Shahjahanpur police, in the meantime, took Jihad's father Fakir into custody after 3am. But the police station's wireless operator Anisul Islam told bdnews24.com that the man was released after 15 minutes of questioning.

[Additional reporting by Moinul Hoque Chowdhury and Salauddin Wahed Pritom]