The state minister for home defended the government rescuers who failed to rescue Jihad even after a 23-hour hectic effort.
However, shortly after they called off the search operation a group of untrained volunteers pulled Jihad out of the deep well using an improvised devise.
“They can’t be blamed for the failure. They tried hard till the end and by the grace of almighty Jihad’s body could be recovered,” State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said yesterday.
He came up with this remark when people from different walks of life were criticising the government rescuers and the state minister for their failure.
The failure had also created a hype all around especially on the social media demanding the home minister quit his post admitting failure.
“After working several hours the fire fighters realised that they did not have enough experience to rescue a victim in such conditions. This type of incident has never happened in the country.”
The Fire Service has sought cooperation from other organisations and people from different government organisations worked to their capacity,” the minister said.
“It was we who first asked the rescuers to use a catcher. This system had been applied two to three times since 10am (Saturday) but failed to yield any result.”
The director general of Fire Service was present there. When the efforts failed, he [DG-Fire] perhaps thought the child could not be found,” said the home boss.
Jihad fell into the 16-inch diameter shaft, around 40 yards from his house in the capital’s Shahjahanpur, while playing with other children on Friday afternoon.
Fire service personnel employed various techniques, one after another, to pull him out, but failed.
The rescue drive continued for 23 hours. The volunteers claimed the body was pulled from a depth of more than 256 feet.
Around ten minutes after the fire service called off its search on Saturday afternoon, the volunteers using a simple tool pulled the four-year-old boy out of the shaft.
But the home minister early Saturday had said there was nobody in the shaft after a Wasa camera failed to locate the boy.
After his remark police picked up Jihad’s father Nasiruddin Fakir from the spot and took him in for questioning.
They detained him for 12 agonising hours at Shahjahanpur Police Station and Nasir was allegedly mentally tortured there. He was released after the locals recovered Jihad.
The state minister claimed they were in doubt whether the boy had fallen in the boreholes when Wasa camera could not locate him in almost 12 hours after the incident.
He claimed, he did not ask the rescuers to stop the operation.
“After I had left the scene they had worked for more than one hour.
Earlier, the Fire Service said they could not see more than 270 feet while the pipe was around 400 feet deep. Some solid substances were barring the view. I asked them to remove the substances and that needed some attachments. The Fire Service was working on it,” he said.
“It is not true they worked loosely. However, we will look into the matter further,” he said.
He also said the government would equip the Fire Service with technology to work in such situations in the future.
The Director General of Fire Service Brig Gen Ali Ahmed Khan did not admit failure but claimed they had “some lackings”: “We had no lacking in seriousness and cordiality, but in technology. We worked with whatever equipment we had in hand.”
“We have no sophisticated camera of our own. We had to depend on the Wasa camera which was not a “search vision” one. Besides, some objects which were thrown into the well before putting the camera were obstructing the view,” he defended.
The DG however, praised the youths who finally could pull Jihad out.
Asked if the government will compensate the family members of Jihad, the home boss said, they will think about that.
‘Nasir was not picked up with any ill motive’
Claiming Nasir Fakir was not harassed by police yesterday chief of Bangladesh police said they picked him up only for questioning about his son Jihad’s whereabouts in a cordial manner.
“Nasir was taken into custody with the honest intention to unravel the mystery. He was not tortured…being a human being none can do so at that moment,” said IGP Hassan Mahmud Khandker.
He, however, said they would look into the matter to find out if any torture was inflicted on him.
He made the comment after attending a meeting of National Committee on Militancy Resistance and Prevention at the Home Ministry in the capital yesterday.
The home minister who was present there said there was no bad intention in it and if any unpleasant incident had taken place in this connection, it is regrettable.