Fresh drive to rescue 4-yr-old boy

After an overnight nerve-racking drive failed to trace a minor boy purportedly fell in a deep tubewell, rescuers started a fresh operation on Saturday morning to lift a minor out of the well dead or alive. Zahid is believed to have slipped into an abandoned 600-foot deep pipe of a pump house in Shahjahanpur Railway Colony on Friday afternoon when he was playing near the well with his firends. Even after 15 hours of unyielding efforts to spot and rescue the missing child, rescuers could not yet find any trace of the 4-year-old till 8am on Saturday. This time, the rescuers of Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence (BFSCD) got into their operation under speculations that there may be ‘no one down below. The Fire Service Director General said they are still continuing their frantic efforts to rescue the child from the bottom of the abandoned 14-inch diametre pipe (amid speculation that the child may not be there). State Minister for Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan, who was present at the spot, expressed doubt about the child being down there in the pipe. But firefighters said they were persisting with the rescue operation to be doubly sure. Fire Service Deputy Assistant Director Md Halim told reporters at 10am on Saturday, 17 hours after the frantic rescue efforts started: ‘There is no victim down below... We have nothing more to do here. We are assisting the locals in their traditional methods.’ But they had said on Friday evening that they had heard a child’s voice and supplied food and oxygen. Md Halim skirted reporters’ queries about their earlier position and said, ‘I’ve come here at 4am. I am not aware of who said what before that,’ according to a news agency.