Jihad drowned in deep tube-well water, doctors say after autopsy

Jihad's death was caused by suffocation in the water though he had suffered head injuries, too, during his fall into the abandoned deep tube-well, doctors have said after post-mortem of the four-year-old child.

Dhaka Medical College and Hospital's Forensic Department chief Habibuzzaman Chowdhury said that internal and external injury marks were found on the boy's head.

"But the pipe contained water. We have come to the conclusion that the child drowned in the water within two hours of his fall inside the pipe."

The autopsy was performed by Habibuzzaman Chowdhury along with Forensic Department Assitant Professor AKM Shafiuzzaman Khair and lecturer Pradip Kumar Biswas.

Shahjahanpur Police Sub-Inspector Abu Jafar said the body has been handed over to the family around 9:45am Sunday at the end of the post-mortem.

Monir Hossain, Jihad's uncle, said the child would be buried at Damuda in Shariatpur, their native home.

Jihad's mother Khadija Akter and father Nasir Fakir were at the hospital during the autopsy.

The child fell through a 14-inch wide opening of a abandoned deep tube-well a few hundred feet down at the Railway Colony in Dhaka's Shahjahanpur on Friday afternoon.

After 23 hours of frantic rescue efforts, Fire Service authority said around 3pm Saturday there was no sign of Jihad's presence inside the pipe. Minutes later some earnest volunteers pulled the child up with the help of traditional hand-made instruments.

The four-year-old was rushed to the hospital in an apparently unconscious state. But the doctors said that he had died several hours ago.

Shahjahanpur Police Sub-Inspector Abu Jafar compiled the autopsy report.

"Skin in various portion of his body, including the head, were peeled off. Initially, it seems he had died due to lack of oxygen in the pipe."

When asked about the time of his death, he said, "The doctors can say that more accurately."

Jihad's father, Fakir, filed a case on Saturday night against Abdus Salam, owner of the construction company responsible for setting the pipe, SR House, and Jahangir Alam, senior Railway sub-assistant engineer, bringing charges of negligence.