The child has been rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Highlights
- After a five-day rescue effort, Fatehveer was pulled out this morning
- He fell into the borewell when he was playing near his house
- The child was stuck in the borewell at a depth of 125 feet
A two-year-old boy, who was stuck in a 150-feet deep borewell in Punjab for nearly 109 hours, was declared dead after he was pulled out of the borewell this morning.
Fatehveer Singh fell into an unused borewell in Bhagwanpura village of Sangrur district last Thursday at around 4 pm when he was playing near his house. The seven-inch-wide borewell was covered with a cloth and the child accidentally stepped on it. His mother tried to rescue him but failed, officials were quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
After a five-day rescue effort, Fatehveer was pulled out at about 5:30 am this morning by the National Disaster Response Force and then taken to PGI Chandigarh for treatment. He was declared "brought dead" at the hospital.
The state had a chopper on standby near the site, but the child was taken to a hospital about 140 km from the village by road.
The child was stuck in the borewell at a depth of 125 feet. Officials had to dig a parallel borewell of 36 inches to pull the child out.
No food or water could be provided to the child but the officials managed to supply oxygen.
A five-member team of doctors conducted postmortem of the body, which was reportedly decomposed. The reason and time of the death will be confirmed after the doctors receive postmortem report.
Fatehveer's family performed his last rites at his native village, Sharon, in Sangrur district.
Soon after the child's death, angry locals blocked the roads in different towns of the districts accusing the government of apathy. Locals asked why was the child pulled out of the the same borewell through in which he fell even when a parallel borewell was dug for his rescue.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had tweeted his condolences. "Very sad to hear about the tragic death of young Fatehveer. I pray that Waheguru grants his family the strength to bear this huge loss," he wrote. He also said he has sought from all the deputy commissioners in the state "so that such terrible accidents can be prevented in the future".
The chief minister was also attacked by opposition parties over delay in the rescue. Sangrur MP and AAP's Punjab unit chief Bhagwant Mann, who had also visited the site, had accused the Amarinder Singh-government of "inordinate delay" in the rescue operation in a statement.
Akali Dal chief Suhbir Singh Badal called it a "daylight murder".
"This is a daylight murder of the most inhuman & beastly kind. There is no such thing as government in Punjab. When the state is seething with pain & anger,CM is busy in leisure & pleasure in cooler climes.The govt remained absent as the child lay dying. Unforgivable," he wrote.