Six Children Drown in Separate Incidents in Narsingdi District
Photo Collected
Four children who drowned while bathing in a canal in Raipura, Narsingdi, were laid to rest in a joint funeral service on Thursday evening. The victims—13-year-old Tabiya, 10-year-old Sumaiya, 9-year-old Ayesha, and 8-year-old Jannat—were students at the local Gausia Nure Madina Women’s Madrasa and resided in the village of Barkanda. Following the funeral prayers held at a local Eidgah field, they were interred in adjacent graves at a nearby cemetery.
Local officials described the tragedy as a devastating loss for the closely-knit community. Chanderkandi Union Parishad Chairman Mezbah Uddin Khondakar Mitul noted that the girls, all from impoverished backgrounds, were frequent playmates. The families reported that the children, none of whom knew how to swim, entered the rain-swollen canal without informing their parents. Tabiya’s father, Shamim Mia, expressed his profound grief, noting that he was traveling to work when he received the call informing him of his only daughter’s death, adding that she was supposed to be at her madrasa at the time.
The Raipura police confirmed that the bodies were released to the families without autopsies, as requested by the relatives, who voiced no complaints regarding the incident. The local administration provided an immediate grant of 20,000 taka to each of the four families to assist with funeral expenses.
The tragedy in Raipura was compounded on Friday morning when two more children drowned in the Meghna River. Eight-year-old Jannati Akter and seven-year-old Nipa Akter were bathing in the river near Veluarchar in the Sayeedabad area when they disappeared underwater. Local residents recovered the bodies and rushed them to the Raipura Upazila Health Complex, where doctors declared them dead upon arrival.
Dr. Shila Akter, who attended to the children in the emergency department, confirmed that both had ceased breathing before reaching the facility. Raipura Police Officer-in-Charge Mojibur Rahman stated that legal proceedings are underway, marking a somber period for the region as local officials grapple with back-to-back drowning fatalities.
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