Two siblings drown in pond

A young boy and his sister drowned in a pond in Manikganj town yesterday when they went there to bathe.

The incident took place in Paschim Sewta area of the town in the afternoon.   

The deceased were identified as Shahadat Hossain, 8, and Fatema Akhter, 9, children of Abdus Sobhan, a day labourer from Lalmonirhat.

Sobhan, the father of the children, said he came to Manikganj town this month in search of work and he brought along his wife and three children. Since then, they had been living at a rented house in Paschim Sewta area of the town.

Yesterday, around 2:30pm, when he was out for work, Shahadat and Fatema went to bathe in a pond in the area. His wife was feeding their 8-month-old baby boy Sabbir at the time.

Sobhan came to learn about the incident after a child from the neighbourhood told his wife that Shahadat and Fatema drowned in the pond. Informed, he then rushed there to recover their bodies from the pond.

Locals later took the children to Manikganj Sadar Hospital where the doctors pronounced them dead, he said.