5-year-old drowns, 7-year-old sister dies too while trying to save him

Two children drowned in a pond in Faridpur's Saltha upazila today (12 June).

The children, aged five and seven years old, respectively, were siblings.

The two siblings have been identified as Tanha Islam, 7, and Abu Talha, 5. 

According to family and local sources, the five-year-old boy drowned first. His elder sister died while trying to save him.

They were rescued from the water and brought to Boalmari Upazila Health Complex around 12pm, where Dr Shakila Azad, the duty doctor of the emergency department, declared them dead on arrival. 

"The two children had already died before being brought to the hospital. Even so, we confirmed it by doing an ECG. They are dead," said Dr Shakila Azad.

The two children lived with their mother at their father's maternal grandparents' home in Jamalpur village in Faridpur's Madhukhali upazila.

According to family and local sources, Tanha and Abu Talha went to Saltha with their mother yesterday (11 June) to visit their maternal grandparents.

Around 11am this morning, Abu Talha went to bathe in a pond beside the house with several other children. At that time, he drowned in the water.

When his sister Tanha saw this, she jumped into the water to save him, and also drowned. Family members rescued both of them from the water upon receiving the news and brought them to the Boalmari Upazila Health Complex, where they were declared dead. 

Earlier yesterday (11 June), seven minors, including children and teenagers, drowned in separate locations across Narayanganj, Kishoreganj, Khulna, Sylhet, and Rangpur districts.

The rising number of drowning cases follows recent incidents on 9 June, where four people died — a man and his nephew in a family pond in Chattogram and a father and son while swimming in the sea at Cox's Bazar.

Besides, on 31 May, two sisters, both minors, drowned in a canal in Brahmanbaria's Nasirnagar upazila.