‘We would've been in danger if Jihad was not found’

Jihad, the child trapped in a pipe, kept responding for six hours since the launch of the rescue operation, witnesses have said.

Chief Crimes Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 27 Dec 2014, 04:14 PM
Updated : 27 Dec 2014, 04:28 PM

He had spoken several times and even held the rope four times.

But those who gave these information and spoke about him on Friday night panicked at one stage of the rescue operation as they had been bombarded with questions.

One of the witnesses, railway official Jahid Mia, said “At first I asked Jihad - ‘uncle, are you alright?’ he answered ‘yes’.”

“I spoke with him several times until 10pm,” he said.

Driver Mohammad Sohel, the other witness, also gave similar account of the event while sharing his experience standing beside the abandoned pipe on Saturday afternoon, an hour after Jihad had been pulled out.

“The two of us would have been in danger if the body was not found.”

“Several detectives and people from the media started looking for us after it was reported early in the morning that the news of the boy being trapped in the pipe was nothing but a rumour,” Sohel said.

Recalling the first hours of the rescue operation, railway official Jahid said, “We dropped a thin nylon rope and asked him whether he got the rope, he answered ‘No’.”

“Then we had pulled the rope and dropped it again with a torch and asked if he got the light, he answered ‘yes’. He had also admitted that he got the rope,” Jahid said

“Then we asked him to hold the torch upwards. But the rope got lighter after pulling up around 10 feet,” he said.

“Afterwards, we dropped a thick rope with a torch and he had held it but released after some time,” he said.

According to him, the firemen and law-enforcers removed them after around four attempts to rescue him.

The Fire Service closed the rescue operation at 2:30pm on Saturday, 23 hours after the rescue operation had started as they could not spot him.

After a few minutes, the locals pulled out his body and took him to a hospital where doctors announced him dead.