4 kids among six drown across country

An infant drowned in knee-deep water on the floor of his house in the capital's Maniknagar while five more including three minors drowned in Chittagong and Pabna in last two days.

Aged about eight months, Sirajul Islam died in the capital around 12:30pm yesterday. He was the only son of rickshaw puller Nayan Sheikh.

“It was around noon when I went out of my room to collect clothes which were drying in the sun. My son was lying on the bed with his father,” victim's mother Sharmin told The Daily Star.

As she returned within 20 minutes, she saw her husband asleep, but the kid was not there. Hearing Sharmin wailing, her husband woke up and neighbours went to the house, only to find the infant drowned.

The house has been inundated by rain water for over a week. The kid just learned to crawl. He might have crawled out of the bed and fell into the water, said Sharmin.

In Chittagong, three minor boys Mohammad Sabbir, 7, Naimul Islam, 6, and Irfan, 6, of Jan Mohammad Para drowned in Jamchhari canal of Lohagara upazila, reports our correspondent.

The three were students of a local madrasa.

Kefayet Ullah, inspector (investigation) of Lohagara Police Station, said the three were playing on the bank of the canal around 1:30pm. At one stage, they got into the canal to see an excavator and drowned.

As it was the time for Juma prayers, nobody noticed them drowning in the canal, said Fiznur Rahman, upazila nirbahi officer of Lohagara.

Locals later recovered the three bodies from the spot.

Our Pabna correspondent adds: Sohel Hossain, 30, of Dilpashara village in Vangura and Liton Hossain of Tebunia village under Pabna Sadar upazila drowned in Boral river in Dilpashara area on Thursday night.

Police said the two might have been electrocuted before they fell into the river.

OC Abu Zafar of Vangura Police Station said the deceased along with their two friends took a boat on a journey at night.

Sohel and Liton who were sitting on the roof of the boat fell into the river around 10:30pm as they were came in contact with a live electric wire which hung across the river there.

Police and locals searched for the two at night, but failed to trace them. The bodies were found some 100 yards off the spot around 11:00am yesterday.