State Minister faces flak for Jihad rescue remarks

State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has come under heavy fire from experts, politicians, journalists and the public for having doubted the presence of the four-year-old 'Jihad' inside an abandoned deep tubewell pipe in Dhaka.

Many blamed the minister's 'irresponsible' remark for the death of the boy.

Some alleged the rescue work flagged after Kamal's 'insensitive' remark.

People took to the social media to air their anger. They demanded the minister's resignation and legal action against those responsible for the failure of the rescue mission.

The BNP, too, expressed took umbrage at Kamal’s ‘irresponsible’ comment.

Jihad fell had fallen into a pit several hundred feet deep on Friday afternoon while playing.

A railway contractor had not sealed the pipe of the abandoned tube-well, though he was installing a deep tube well nearby.

Fire Service officials tried to lift the boy in rescue efforts lasting for 23 hours and, at one stage, lowered a camera but could not spot the child.

In the early hours of Saturday, junior minister Kamal spoke of his suspicion about the incident being a possible hoax.

"...I'm sure there's no one down there," he had said.

The child was lifted from the pit by volunteers minutes after rescuers had abandoned their search in the afternoon.

Senior Lecturer at Middlesex University's CSE department Dr Shahedur Rahman questioned the competence of the Fire Service and Civil Defence.

Zahid Newaz, the news editor of a private TV channel, demanded punishment for policemen who detained Jihad's father, and blamed the Fire Service for calling off the rescue operation.

One Emon Mirza berated the state minister and the rescuers.

Dr Rahman, now in Dhaka, was in amazed disbelief that the well-drilled Fire Service had not consulted anyone or set up a special squad to rescue the boy.

"It's not rocket science. The child could have been easily spotted if they used an infra-red camera.

"I'm sure we have such cameras here. I wonder why they were not used," he said while speaking to bdnews24.com.

Fire Service Director General Ali Ahmed Khan defended their actions.

He said they did not have cameras used for such searches. "We worked diligently with everything we had," he said.

State Minister Kamal admitted to having doubted whether Jihad was at all down in the pipe but claimed he had not ordered winding up of rescue work.

He said the rescuers had told him that they could not trace the child at a depth of 270 feet in the 400-feet-deep pipe.

Garbage, stuck in the pipe, was obstructing the view.

Kamal said he had ordered the removal of the garbage and the continuation of the rescue efforts.

Dr Rahman, who was present at the site, said the minister had doubted Jihad's presence in the pipe after Fire Service officials showed him the monitor.

"The Fire Service slackened rescue efforts after that, and many journalists, too, left the spot," he recalled.

The state minister said, "It might not be true. But we'll investigate the matter."

Dr Rahman said: "Fire Service said they were pumping in oxygen. The child would have died if the oxygen supply was cut even for a few minutes after the state minister expressed doubts.

"Such a role from a public representative is unexpected. The problem started after that.

"Otherwise, it'd have been possible to rescue Jihad."