2-year-old Fatehveer, pulled out of borewell after 5 days, declared dead

Sangrur

Two-year-old Fatehveer of Bhagwanpura in Sangrur who was finally pulled out of the borewell on Tuesday morning has been declared dead.

He was pulled after more than 100 hours of remaining stuck in the narrow tube he had fallen into. The child had stumbled into the borewell that was covered with cement bags around 4 pm on Thursday. He was pulled out of the same tube in which he had fallen.

The child was rushed out of the site within minutes and later shifted to PGI in Chandigarh.

There was tension in the area as residents demanded action against the officials responsible for the delay in the rescue.

Around midnight, Punjab Cabinet Minister Vijay Inder Singla, DC Ghanshyam Thori, SSP Sandeep Garg, who were camping on the spot, urged residents to go home, but no-one was willing to return without seeing Fatehveer.

Sukhminder Singh, father of Fatehveer, had also requested people to end their protest and clear the blocked roads even as the crowd kept swelling.

The administration had to depute more police force in the area to maintain peace.

Anger was palpable among the large number of people who had gathered at the site where two-year-old Fatehveer was being rescued from a borewell even as those carrying out the operation were racing against time to complete their mission.

As pressure mounted on the government, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh ordered a crackdown on open borewells and demended a report within 24 hours. He also asked the public to report open borewells to authorities immediately.

A chopper of the Punjab CM had also been put on standby near the spot where the rescue operation was under way.

Angered over what they called the “slow pace” of the “ill-organised” rescue operation, locals blocked the Sunam-Mansa road on Monday and also attacked a private car.

National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) members had to fill sand to level the second borewell dug parallel to the one in which the child was stuck.

“The operation is getting delayed due to lack of required technical assistance,” Kultar Singh, a local resident, had alleged.

Monday also happened to be the second birthday of Fatehveer, and the family had planned a celebration with their relatives.

Father Sukhminder Singh said Fatehveer had his last meal at 2 pm on Thursday, before falling into the 150-ft-deep abandoned borewell.