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8-month-old baby rescued after 81 hours!

Last Friday's earthquake in Gujarat, one of the worst in India, has had its share of miracles in its trail of devastation.

As rows of buildings were razed killing and maiming thousands, a number of small babies were rescued without a scratch from underneath the pile of rubble in various worst-affected areas.

But the case of eight-month-old Murtaza Ali in Bhuj, the epicentre, belies belief.

Murtaza was rescued by a team of BSF personnel, 81 hours after the quake struck, in Gora Noor Fali area of old Bhuj town Monday evening from the lap of his mother's badly decomposed body. His father's body was lying by the side.

Personnel of 1011 BSF Arty Regiment, who have been scanning for possible survivors in the area rendered inaccessible by the mound of debris, retrieved the baby with minor scratches around 1730 hours.

The BSF men heard some sound akin to the crying of a cat while rummaging through the remains of the building. That led the team under Deputy Commandant Diwakar Kumar to Murtaza who was found under the arms of his mother's highly decomposed body.

''Murtaza was perhaps breastfeeding when the quake struck ... His mother's body had decayed and there were insects all over. Probably Murtaza had also fed on the blood oozing out of his mother's head,'' Diwakar told a UNI correspondent who was present in the area when the baby was brought to a makeshift medical camp. Stains of blood were found in Murtaza's mouth though there were no injuries.

The baby had only minor scatches in the head. Insects were also removed from Murtaza's navel, hair and some other parts of the body before doctors put him on saline. An hour later, he was removed to the military hospital, accompanied by his grandfather Moiz Jamali. Jamali, who till then was grieving the death of his daughter, son-in-law and grandson, was too overwhelmed to speak.

Teams from Switzerland and Britain, equipped with sniffer dogs, life-detector instruments and specialised cutting equipment, are still looking for possible survivors.

''Our personel have so far rescued more than 60 survivors. We will look for survivors at least till Tuesday as a trapped person can survive in this kind of a situation without food, water and proper breathing for a maximum duration of five days,'' said Assistant Commandant R K Thakur.

Men from the BSF regiment, located barely 1.5 km from the city limits, were the first to arrive in Bhuj, half an hour after the quake shook the entire area.

Reports of small babies being rescued alive are also pouring in from more areas. A month-old baby was rescued on Sunday in the totally devastated taluka town of Bhachau, 77 km from Bhuj, and six km beyond a two-month-old baby was brought out alive the same day from under the ruins of Vondh village.

There have also been some cases of octogenarians being rescued from under collapsed buildings. An 80-year-old lady was rescued Monday, almost four days after the quake, in Vondh. In Ahmedabad town an eighty-year-old man was rescued from the debris of a high rise building earlier.

UNI

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