RAWALPINDI, Feb 5: For Rahimullah’s mother, it was just another rainy evening on Monday when she sent out her son to buy Rotis for dinner. However, the evening took on a morbid turn when her 14-year-old son disappeared into the nullah near Fauji Colony.

Rahimullah bought the Rotis but by the time he got back to the small bridge on Leh Nullah he had used earlier, it had been completely inundated by the gushing water. Unknowingly, he misplaced his foot and stepped into deep waters.

Locals sitting along the bank of the nullah shouted for help when they noticed he was being carried away by strong currents, but nobody could rescue him.

By the time Sabir Khan, Rahim’s father, arrived at the site of the incident after being informed by his neighbours, on-lookers had deserted the bank.

Rescue 1122 searched for the boy till 1am on Tuesday and again started the operation at 9am on Tuesday.

Despite the passage of 24 hours, Rescue 1122 and Pakistan Navy divers had been unable to recover his body.

“If I had known that this could happen, I would have never sent Rahimullah outside,” his distraught mother said.

“I want my son to have his dinner, he would be hungry. I am waiting for my son he will come back and eat his favourite meal,” she said while refusing to accept her son had drowned.

“Please search for my child, he will be alive,” she requested the rescue teams.

Sabir Khan told Dawn that he and his relatives were searching for his son with Rescue 1122.

“We stopped the operation on Tuesday evening because we cannot let the divers work in darkness,” said Mohammad Waqas, an official of Rescue 1122 at the site.

“We have already searched for the boy from Fauji Colony to Soan River where the Leh Nullah discharges,” he explained.

To another question, he said it was an unusual case rescue teams usually recover the bodies of individuals who drown accidentally, or otherwise the bodies float up to the surface.

“But the recent rains have increased the flow of water and the teams have not been able to find the body,” he clairified.

“We found the body of a 25-year-old man from Leh Nullah at Dhoke Chiraghdin on Tuesday evening, and it has been to the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital,” he added.

During monsoon, residents of the slums in Pirwadhai, Fauji Colony, Hazara Colony, and Dhoke Hassu frequently get trapped in rainwater from the nullah.

Tahir Mehmood Khan, Rawal Town Municipal Administration (RTMA) spokesman, told Dawn that his organisation was aware of the presence of the illegally built houses on the banks of Leh Nullah.

“These houses were constructed along the nullah in the last 10 years and RTMA has launched an operation against them many a time. But it is not possible for the civic body to raze all these housing schemes without the consent of the provincial government,” he elaborated.