Two Siblings Drown in Panchagarh

Two siblings have drowned in a pond in Tetulia Upazila of Panchagarh, police said on Tuesday.

The deceased were identified as Mojibor Rahman, 8, and Habiba, 6, children of Abdul Hannan of Shalbahan union in the Upazila, said Jahangir Alam, officer-in-charge of Tetulia model police station, reports UNB.

The tragedy occurred on Monday evening when their father left them near the pond in the Khalpara area so as to ferry bricks to the family house in the Nalagach area in an auto-rickshaw.

As they were missing when he returned, along with locals, he started searching for them and recovered their bodies from the pond later, the OC said.

“A case of unnatural death has been filed in this regard,” said the officer.

According to WHO and UNICEF, each year, over 14,000 children in Bangladesh die due to drowning.

Although largely unrecognised, drowning is the second leading cause of death for children under the age of five in the country