Nightlong search in lurch

Rescuers have failed to find a minor boy purportedly trapped several hundred feet down an abandoned deep tubewell in Shahjahanpur Railway Colony in Dhaka despite frantic efforts unfolding all night long before a captivated nation. The hopes to rescue alive 4-year-old Zahid who slipped into the 600-foot deep pipe of an abandoned railway pump fade away as hours of hectic efforts by rescuers went in vain. Zahid, son of Nasir Uddin, a resident of the railway colony, suddenly slipped into the deep pipe around 4:30pm on Friday while playing near the abandoned pump house, said officials at Fire Service and Civil Defence (FSCD) control room. The rescuers efforts to detect the position of Zahid with a sophisticated GoPro camera 11 hours after his slip also turned futile as the picture shown seemed to be of a sack or clothes. Efforts were on to send another camera into the pipe at about 20:30am today (Saturday).  Contacted, FSCD Assistant Director (Dhaka) Rafiqul Islam said they had first tried to rescue Zahid with the help of a rope and a sack but it went in vain. ‘The mouth of the pipe is only 16-17-inch in diameter. Besides, it was very difficult to climb up for the child holding a rope,’ he said. Some food, juice and mineral water were also dropped into the pipe along with a torch light. They were also constantly providing oxygen into the pipe to keep the boy alive. Fire brigade men also lifted a 2-inch pipe along with a pump having inside the 16-17 inch pipe to facilitate the rescue operation, according to a news agency.