Rabat, Morocco (TMT)- The Italian authorities in Rome granted illegal immigrant Sobuj Khalifa, a Bangladeshi Muslim, a one-year residence permit after a heroic act which saw him jump into the Tevere river in Rome to rescue an Israeli Jew from drowning (check video underneath), in an event where he did not feel as a hero but “only doing his duty,” as he stressed that “God wants us to help everybody.”
Narrating the story, Khalifa said the following:
“I saw a floating body in the water. I thought it was a big fish but then I saw it was a person.”
“I ran along the banks as she was being carried along by the current,” the Muslim man added.
“People were watching from the bridge and I shouted at them, asking them to call for help. Then I jumped into the river without even taking off my shoes. I wasn’t afraid,” Khalifa stressed.
After he rescued the Israeli woman, Khalifa said that he was so moved.”
“I was very moved. I’ve never felt so happy,” Khalifa said.
“I learned to swim back in my home country. We have the sea but we also have floods all year round. If you don’t swim, you die,” Khalifa quipped.
“I am not a hero,” Khalifa added.
“God wants us to help everybody,” he stressed.
The Moroccan Times.
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