Hazrat didn’t think twice.
His 5-year-old neighbor, Zainullah, had fallen into a dry well in Afghanistan while playing with other children. It was a hole about 70 meters deep, so narrow that no adult could go down to look for him. Only a small body could fit, so Hazrat, just 11 years old, volunteered to descend.
He summoned his courage, descended through the darkness to the bottom and reached Zainullah. Down there, with a child’s hands, he tied him with a rope so rescuers could pull him up from the surface.
His case is not isolated. In several regions of Afghanistan, water scarcity has forced people to drill increasingly deep wells, and many are poorly maintained and left uncovered. Children are among the most frequent victims. Taliban officials say they will ban the use of these wells for any purpose other than extracting drinking water.