Kolkata: Moinul Haque (23) survived 10 hours of excruciating pain as he got trapped in the debris at the Garden Reach crash site and had his right leg stuck between concrete chunks. When he was pulled out around 10am, the neighbourhood cheered in ecstasy and clapped in unison as Haque raised his thumb, assuring the neighbourhood he was alive.
“It was a magical moment.Many had given up hope that he could be alive after being stuck under the debris for so long. But my Moinul proved everyone wrong with his indomitable spirit as he kept fighting and came out alive from there,” said a jubilant Firoz Alam, who was accompanying Moinul to SSKM hospital where he was admitted at the trauma care unit with severe leg injuries.
Equally excited was Md Shahnawaz, who waited for several hours by the fallen building anticipating a miracle that could save his brother Md Janu. “My brother was chatting with friends at the under-construction building till late night when the crash happened. While the rescuers could connect to one of his friends, there was no news of my brother. But the miracle happened as my brother was brought out by NDRF personnel on a stretcher around 9am,” said Shahnawaz, a tailor.
Class VI student Shaheen Parveen also had a miraculous escape when the illegal building collapsed on their home but the portion of the house she was in was saved from the damage. But her mother wa-sn’t as lucky as her as she got trapped under concrete chu-nks. She was rescued around dawn. “I was in the kitchen outside our house and thus was saved but many of my family members were injured. My mother has suffered injuries and is admitted at SSKM,” she said.
But some like Mehtab Alam were found chanting their prayers till late on Monday hoping for a miracle as his brother Sheru Nizami — who also happens to be a partner of accused promoter Md Wasim — was still feared to be trapped in the debris. “He was at the site chatting with local boys when the accident happened. Some of those with whom he was chatting have come out alive. I just hope he can still make it somehow,” said Alam.