FORT WORTH, Texas: A baby is expected to make a full recovery after being pulled from under a vehicle that had flipped during a crash, authorities said Friday after releasing dramatic video that showed the rescue effort along a busy highway.
Officers responded to the scene Thursday morning after getting reports that the child and mother had been ejected from the car.
Body camera footage shared Friday on social media by the Fort Worth Police Department shows an officer running toward the overturned car and beginning to search for the child as a distraught woman can be heard in the background yelling for her baby.
The officer rallied other motorists who had stopped at the scene to help him lift the car.
“Under here, we need to move the car,” the officer tells them, saying he thinks the child is pinned underneath.
“Keep moving, keep moving,” the officer urges them as the car is lifted just enough for him to grab the child’s leg and pull it to safety.
The child was unresponsive, but one officer said he felt a pulse. They attempted to get the baby to take a breath, with one officer using his fingers to push on the child’s chest. The baby eventually began to make noises and then started to cry.
Police said both the mother and child were expected to make a full recovery.
“Although this video may be extremely difficult to watch, it is an important example of the kinds of situations that our police officers may come across while performing their duties,” the department said in its post.
Police Chief Eddie Garcia in a social media post referred to the child as a “little angel” and praised the officers for their heroism. The department also thanked the citizens who stopped to help with the rescue.
Video shows dramatic rescue of baby pinned under overturned car in Texas
https://arab.news/c4u3h
Video shows dramatic rescue of baby pinned under overturned car in Texas
- Officer rallied other motorists who had stopped at the scene to help him lift the car
- Both the mother and child were expected to make a full recovery, say police
In southeast Pakistan, Ramadan brings Hindus and Muslims closer
MITHI: Partab Shivani, a Hindu in Muslim-majority Pakistan, has fasted on and off during Ramadan for years, but this time is different as he practices abstinence for the entire holy month.
Every year, he and his friends in the southeastern city of Mithi arrange iftar, when Muslims break their daily fast, to foster peace and solidarity between the two religions.
“I believe we need to promote interfaith harmony. First, we are humans — religions came later,” Shivani, a 48-year-old social activist, told AFP, adding that he also reads the teachings of the Buddha.
“His message is about peace and ending war. Peace can spread through solidarity and by standing with one another. Distance only widens the gap between people,” he added.
Ninety-six percent of Pakistan’s 240 million people are Muslim. Just two percent are Hindu, most of them living in rural areas of Sindh province where Mithi is located.
In Mithi itself, most of the 60,000 inhabitants are Hindu.
Many of the city’s Hindus also observe Ramadan and iftar has become a social gathering where people from both faiths happily participate.
“This has been a wonderful tradition of ours for a very long time,” said Mir Muhammad Buledi, a 51-year-old Muslim friend who attended Shivani’s iftar gathering.
“It is a beautiful example of harmony between the two communities.”
Like brothers
Discrimination against minorities runs deep in Pakistan.
Following the end of British rule in South Asia in 1947, the subcontinent was partitioned into mainly Hindu India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
That triggered widespread religious bloodshed in which hundreds of thousands were killed and millions displaced.
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, freedom of religion or belief is under constant threat, with religiously motivated violence and discrimination increasing yearly.
State authorities, often using religious unrest for political gain, have failed to address the crisis, the independent non-profit says.
But such tensions are absent in Mithi.
“I am a Hindu but I keep all the fasts during this month,” said Sushil Malani, a local politician. “I feel happy standing with my Muslim brothers.
“We celebrate Eid together as well. This tradition in the region is very old.”
Restaurants and tea stalls are closed across Pakistan during Ramadan.
Ramesh Kumar, a 52-year-old Hindu man who sells sweets and savoury items outside a Muslim shrine, keeps his push cart covered and closed until iftar.
“There is no discrimination among us if someone is Muslim or Hindu. I have been seeing this since my childhood that we all live together like brothers,” he said.
Muslim shrine, Hindu caretaker
Locals say Mithi’s peaceful religious coexistence can be traced to its remote location, emerging from the sand dunes of the Tharparkar desert, which borders the modern Indian state of Rajasthan.
Cows — considered sacred in Hinduism — roam freely in Mithi city, as they do in neighboring India.
At two Sufi Muslim shrines in the middle of the city, Hindu families arrange meals, bringing fruit, meals and juices for their Muslim neighbors to break their fasts.
“We respect Muslims,” said Mohan Lal Malhi, a Hindu caretaker of one of the shrines.
Mohan said his parents and elders taught him to respect people regardless of religion or color, and the traditions pass from one generation to the next.
Local residents said both communities consider their social relationships more important than their religious identity.
“You will see a (Sikh) gurdwara, a mosque, and a shrine standing side by side here,” Mohan said. “The atmosphere of this area teaches humanity.”
