GUWAHATI, May 3 � In an unfortunate incident, a two-and-a-half-year old child fell into an open borewell in the Hatigaon area of the city this afternoon. Though a massive rescue operation was launched, till the time of filing of this report, the child could not be rescued.
The child, Afirul Islam, son of Rafique Ali, a mason hailing from Jania in Barpeta district, fell into the borewell when he was playing in the area around 2.30 pm. The borewell is located in the compound of a house owned by one Syed Mainuddin Hassan and Rafique and his family stay in a rented thatched house in the compound.
As soon as the news of the child falling into the borewell came to light, a massive rescue operation was launched and two JCBs were pressed into service to dig into the sides of the borewell. The compound walls of four nearby houses had to be demolished for the operation. A CCTV camera was put into the borewell and the child was seen. But it was not clear whether the child was alive or not and only the completion of the operation will ascertain the condition of the child.
Teams of the State Disaster Management Force and Fire Brigade were pressed into service in the rescue operations, while columns of the Engineering Service of the 51 Sub area of the Army were also rushed to the area along with medical teams.
A large number of people gathered in the area to witness the rescue operations, which, in turn, affected the operations and the police had to use force to move the crowd away from the area.
