The Taliban announced on Friday that digging and rescue teams reached the child Haidar, who had been trapped for two days in a well in southern Afghanistan, but they found him dead. Anas Haqqani, a senior adviser at the Ministry of Interior, tweeted that child Haidar "has left us forever. It is a day of mourning and sadness for our country."
Sky News reported that the Afghan child Haidar was believed to have remained alive until Thursday evening. The challenging terrain where the incident occurred complicated the rescue efforts. Afghan sources noted that falling rocks hampered the operation to save Haidar.
A Twitter account linked to the Taliban reported that the rescue team reached Haidar, but he had already died after 96 hours trapped in the well, echoing the tragedy of the Moroccan child Rayan. Five-year-old Haidar fell into a well in the Zabul province and social media users circulated images of the rescue effort under the hashtag "Save Haidar."
Haidar's story resembles that of Moroccan child Rayan, who died after falling into a well in Morocco two weeks ago. Haidar was trapped about a meter from the bottom of the 25-meter deep well, and locals claimed the child was in a dangerous condition due to the lack of advanced equipment.
Videos circulated on social media showed Haidar wearing a blue vest, sitting trapped at the bottom of the well, with his shoulders against the wall. He could clearly move his arms and the upper part of his body. Footage obtained via a camera lowered into the shaft captured the sound of the child crying and moaning, and in another clip, he was heard speaking to his father in a distant voice.
