Child Shajid still not found at 35 feet, rescue operation continues

Efforts to rescue the child who fell into a 30–35 foot deep pit in Tanore, Rajshahi, remains ongoing. The fire service continued the rescue operation throughout Wednesday night. Despite nearly 16 hours of effort, the child has not yet been found. As of 9:00 am on Thursday, when this report was prepared, the rescue operation was still in progress.

According to fire service sources, rescuers are attempting to reach the child by cutting through the side of the main pit. Even after digging down to a depth of 35 feet, the child could not be located. This morning, Shahinuzzaman, officer-in-charge of Tanore police station told Prothom Alo, “The rescue operation has not been completed. Excavation is still under way.”

At around 1:00 pm on Wednesday, Sajid, a two year old boy, fell into the deep pit in Tanore. The child had been walking alongside his mother, holding her hand, through a paddy field where the harvest had already been cut.

Suddenly he slipped and fell into the pit. Sajid is the son of Rakib, a resident of Koelhat Purba Para village in the upazila. Rakib works in Dhaka as a manager at a jute mill and has not yet been able to return home.

Local residents reported that the groundwater level in this village under Pachandar Union of Tanore Upazila has dropped significantly. Installation of deep tube-wells in the area is currently prohibited.

Despite this, a resident of Koelhat village had previously dug the pit on his land to check whether water could be found beneath the surface.

Although the pit had been filled in, the soil had subsided again during the monsoon, creating a new cavity. The child had fallen into that very pit.

According to fire service sources, excavation began at around 5:30 pm yesterday, Wednesday using an excavator. Three units from the fire service, including teams from Chapainawabganj and Rajshahi, were involved in the operation, joined by police and army personnel.

At around 10 pm, excavation could no longer continue with the smaller excavator. A larger excavator, sent by the Rajshahi city corporation, was then deployed and the work continued throughout the night.

By around 8 am today, Thursday rescuers had reached approximately 35 feet by cutting through the side of the main pit, but the child was still not found. It is suspected that the child may have slipped deeper into the pit.

Didarul Alam, assistant director of the Rajshahi division fire service, informed on Wednesday night, they received the information about the child falling into the pit at around 2:30 pm.

Upon arrival, they found that local residents, in their attempt to rescue the child, had inadvertently dropped some soil into the pit, which created additional difficulties. Upon arrival, the rescuers immediately began supplying oxygen into the pit through a pipe.