Miracle in Tanore: Little Sajid pulled alive from 200ft borewell after 36-hour

Koelhat village erupted in tears, prayers and disbelief on Thursday night as two-year-old Sajid – who had been trapped for nearly 36 hours inside the borehole of an abandoned deep tube well – was finally pulled out alive.

At 8:50pm, after a rescue operation that stretched through two nights, the Fire Service and Civil Defence lifted the child from the narrow shaft, ending a harrowing wait that had left an entire village frozen in fear.

He was immediately whisked into an ambulance and taken to the nearest medical facility for emergency assessment. Officials say he will be shifted to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital for further evaluation.

Tanore Upazila Nirbahi Officer Naima Khan confirmed the miracle: “Yes, the boy has been rescued alive. The entire operation team broke down when we heard his cry.”

From despair to miracle

Just hours earlier, the mood in Koelhat had been suffocating. The sun had set twice over the village, and Sajid’s whereabouts were still unknown. Rescue officials had warned that the chances of finding him alive were “slim”. Many feared that the search was turning into a recovery, not a rescue.

Yet, his mother, Runa Khatun, never stepped away from the pit. She sat gripping her saree, whispering her son’s name – the same voice he had called for when he slipped into the earth.

“He was holding my hand,” she had said earlier, tears pouring down her face. “Then I heard him calling from inside the hole… ‘Ma… Ma…’”

Now, as rescuers lifted a dust-covered but breathing Sajid from the shaft, Runa collapsed to the ground, wailing with relief. Villagers rushed to hold her up as she cried, “Allah, thank you… thank you…”

A battle against depth, darkness and time

The rescue had been one of the most complex in recent years. Firefighters worked without pause – lowering cameras, digging a parallel shaft, tunnelling sideways, and pushing deeper inch by inch.

At one point, cameras showed only packed soil. At another, rescuers feared they had lost the trail completely.

“There is no technology anywhere in the world that can instantly rescue someone from such depth,” Lieutenant Colonel Tajul Islam Chowdhury had said during the operation. “Even developed countries need 75-78 hours.”

But the team kept digging, refusing to give up.

When hope was all they had

Throughout the ordeal, Koelhat village stood still.

Hundreds gathered around the pit, praying aloud, whispering Surahs, holding each other. Local women brought biscuits and water for the exhausted rescuers. Children stood silently behind bamboo fences, their usual playfulness replaced by worry.

The mosque held special prayers. Entire families waited outside all night. Even the wind carried the sound of whispered duas.

Sajid’s father, Mohammad Rakib, who rushed from Gazipur after hearing the news, had been unable to speak earlier. “I don’t know if my son is alive,” he had murmured. “I have left him in Allah’s care.”

Tonight, as he sat inside the ambulance beside his rescued child, he could only cry — this time from joy.

A family’s nightmare ends

Sajid, the middle of three brothers, had been walking with his mother when he slipped into the borehole hidden beneath straw. Neither realised there was a 150-200-foot danger beneath their feet.

The village feared the worst.

But tonight, Koelhat witnessed a miracle.

Lights, tears, and applause

When rescuers emerged with Sajid in their arms, the crowd broke. People screamed “Allahu Akbar!” Others sobbed openly. Firefighters hugged one another, covered in dirt but smiling through tears.

A mother found her child.

A father held his son again.

A village saw its prayers answered.

After thirty-six hours of fear, silence, and digging through darkness, little Sajid is alive — and Koelhat village is breathing again.