Local officials in Zabul province say Haidar, a six-year-old child from Zabul who had been stuck in a well for three days, died. Two Taliban officials supervised the operation of the child rescue team.
A six-year-old child fell into a 35-meter-deep well in Zabul province, Afghanistan, on Tuesday (February 15th). After three days of trying, officers managed to pull the child out of the well on Friday, February 20, but he had died before being pulled out by rescue teams.
Anas Haqqani, a Taliban interior ministry adviser and a senior member of the group, confirmed the death of six-year-old Haidar in a message on his Twitter page, according to Deutsche Welle’s Dari section.
Anas Haqqani and Mullah Mohammad Yaqub, the acting head of the Taliban Ministry of Defense, went to Zabul province to monitor the rescue operation.
Images circulated on social media during the three days showed that in addition to the rescue team, a large number of locals had gathered at the scene to rescue the child.
Social media users have expressed differing views on the Taliban’s attempt to save the child.
Some have praised the Taliban for doing so, but others have called the presence of Taliban officials at the scene and the posting of photos of them on social media a propaganda move.
In their messages, these users mentioned the large number of children killed who had lost their lives during the Taliban attacks in the last two decades.
