Operation: Rescue personnel find treasure hunter’s body

It took 44 hours to find the body, which lay buried in a collapsed tunnel.

MULTAN:

Rescue 1122 on Monday found the body of Zeeshan Qureshi, 20, who had descended 40 feet below the ground level in search of a treasure.

The rescue operation was re-started on Monday after a 10-member committee, constituted by Multan DCO Zahid Saleem Gondal on Sunday, gave their approval to a Rescue 1122 plan to recover the body.

The operation had been called off on Sunday evening. District Rescue Officer Muhammad Khalid said that Rescue 1122 men had followed the shaft 40 feet down and found two tunnels. They said these tunnels were only about two feet wide, and appeared to go on possibly as far as 20 feet. Rescue officials said they had not ventured further due to safety concerns.

On Monday morning two shafts, 45 to 50 feet deep and three feet wide, were dug from the neighbouring houses. Rescue Officer Muhammad Farhan said it took four hours to find the body, which was buried under rubble, in the tunnel to the right of the shaft that Qureshi had dug.

Farhan said rescue personnel had used a steel pipe built specifically for the operation to ensure they always had air to breathe. Rescue 1122 and the district buildings department had also called experts from Lahore for advice on the operation.

Residents of the area, media persons and other officials were kept at a distance of 30 metres from the three buildings where shafts had to be dug.

A sister of the deceased later said her brother had died due to failure of Rescue 1122 personnel and the district administration. She also said that her brother had decided to look for the treasure on his own initiative, and that her parents had not been involved.

Earlier, in a statement to the police, Qureshi’s parents hadsaid they had told their youngest son to dig under the house. They said a soothsayer had told them there was a treasure lying beneath their house. They had said he had started digging 10 weeks ago, but on Saturday he did not emerge from the shaft. His mother called Rescue officials at 6 pm on April 12 when his cell phone lost service, 12 hours after he had last descended into the shaft.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2014.