Six children, aged between 2 and 8, drowned in Jashore, Chapainawabganj and Dinajpur in a span of just a few hours since Monday morning.
In Jashore, three children drowned in a pond at Srirampur village in Bagharpara upazila around 12:30 pm when they were taking bath.
The deceased were identified as Toma,8, daughter of Harun Molla, Sumaiya, 8, daughter of Kamrul Islam, and Hosain, 5, son of Syed Molla from Srirampur village.
Firoz Uddin, officer-in-Charge of Bagharpara police station, said locals rescued the bodies and took to upazila health complex where doctors announced them dead on arrival.
“As the pond was deep and the kids didn’t know how to swim they drowned,” he said.
In Chapainawabganj, two children drowned in a pond in Tikrampur Madhyapara area of the municipality at noon.
The deceased were identified as Didar Ahmed,5, son of Delwar Hossain of the area and Tisha,4, daughter of Mohammad Hossain.
Didar and Tisha slipped into the pond near their house around 12pm while playing beside it, said Mozaffar Hossain, officer-in-charge (OC) of Chapainawabganj Sadar police station.
Locals found the floating bodies of the two children and took them to Chapainawabganj Sadar hospital where doctors declared the duo dead, the OC added.
In Dinajpur, a minor child drowned in a pond in Nawabganj upazila of the district in the morning.
The deceased was Taslima, 2, daughter of Tara Mandal of Haripur Mandbachan village of Golapganj union.
According to the locals, Taslima was playing near a pond adjacent to her house around 10am and fell into the pond.
Family members rescued her and took her to Upazila Health Complex where doctors declared her dead, said Ferdous Wahid, officer-in-charge, of Nawabganj police station.
In Bangladesh, 400 people -- 75% of them are children under age 5 -- die because of drowning every year , says the World Health Organisation.
