Body of girl who fell into nullah still missing

Rescue operation called off with consent of <br /> four-year-old’s father

KARACHI: The body of a four-year-old girl, who was reported to have fallen into a nullah near Valika Chowrangi in SITE Area on Saturday, is yet to be found. A day after the incident, rescue teams called off the search.

It was reported that the child, Noor Fatima, fell off a bridge and into the nullah while playing.

As soon as the area residents found out about the incident, they began a search for the girl. Meanwhile, Edhi rescue workers and police at Madadgar-15 were also informed.  Rescue teams, however, only reached the site after a delay of three hours.

A search operation was launched after the arrival of rescue teams, though it was suspended at night without any progress. The operation, carried out by Pakistan Navy and Edhi Foundation teams, was resumed early Sunday morning. A large part of the nullah was searched during the operation but rescue efforts proved to be futile. The search was later terminated with the consent of Fatima's father, Azmat Khan.

According to the head of the Pakistan Navy divers team, Sub-Lieutenant Tasawur, the divers were unable to dive into the nullah to search for the body due to the nullah's depth and the trash in it.

Meanwhile, Khan, who works in a beverage factory, shared that Fatima was fourth among his five children. "She fell into the nullah around 3pm while crossing a bridge along with her brothers and friends," he said.

Appreciating Pakistan Navy for putting in efforts to find his daughter's body, he confirmed that he had consented to calling off the operation as "I believe that anyone who falls into a nullah is never recovered."

Eyewitnesses revealed that the flow of water was high in the nullah the day Fatima fell into it. They said that Pakistan Navy's rescue workers had searched for the minor girl's body as far as at least three kilometres into the nullah but to no avail.

Area residents complained that no nets were placed in the nullah to filter garbage from the water, adding that had the nets been placed, the body would have been caught by one of them and found.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2020.