Police and Fire Service divers have recovered the body of a seven-year-old boy who went missing while fishing with his father in Mithapukur upazila of Rangpur.

The deceased was identified as Alif Hasan, the only son of Mozahidul Islam from Khoshalpur village under Kafrikhal Union in the upazila.

According to locals, Alif went to catch fish in a pond of a farm owned by a farmer named Asad near his house with his father on Friday afternoon. At one stage, his father returned home but Alif did not. When he could not be found for a long time, family members started searching for him.

Initially, locals searched nearby ponds but failed to trace him and later informed the fire service.

Two units of Mithapukur and Rangpur Fire Service rushed to the spot and launched a rescue operation with two divers.

Based on information from locals and two of Alif’s playmates, divers first carried out a nearly five-hour operation in one pond where the boy was last seen bathing with friends. However, they could not find him there.

Later, they started searching another adjacent pond where he had gone fishing with his father.

Around 9:00pm on Friday, the divers finally recovered Alif’s body from a pond of the fish farm, about five hours after he went missing around 4:00pm.

Mithapukur Fire Service Warehouse Inspector Md. Mashiur Rahman said they received the information around 4:00pm and began the search operation immediately.

He added that it took time to locate the child due to some misleading information during the rescue operation.