4 children drown in N’ganj pond

Four children drowned in a pond in Araihazar upazila of Narayanganj yesterday.

The victims were Ojaifa, 10; Afsar, 12; Ria Moni, 8; and Rubaiya, 8 -- all residents of Khanpara in Duptara union.

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The incident occurred around 6:00pm, said Shobjel Hossain, officer-in-charge of Araihazar Police Station.

According to the police official, the children had been missing since the afternoon.

Their family members later spotted their shoes and sandals beside a pond near Afsar’s house and began searching the water.

The four children were rescued and two were taken to the Araihazar Upazila Health Complex and the other two to a private hospital.

Doctors declared all of them dead.

Police visited the scene, and as the families filed no complaint, the bodies were handed over for burial without autopsies, the OC said.

Between January and June this year, 583 people, including 527 children, drowned across Bangladesh, according to data compiled by the Foundation for Disaster Forum.

Last year, drowning claimed 1,311 lives, with nearly 90 percent of victims being children (1,184).