Three children drowned in separate incidents in Faridganj and Hajiganj upazilas of Chandpur on Tuesday.
In Faridganj, three-year-old A Rahman, son of schoolteacher Abdul Kader of Sokdirampur village, drowned in a pond beside his father’s school at around 10am.
The child was playing on the school veranda, as he usually did, while his father was taking a class.
At one point, he apparently fell into the pond unnoticed.
Locals rescued him and rushed him to the upazila government hospital, where an on-duty doctor declared him dead.
His mother, Ayesha Begum, died of cancer three months ago.
Meanwhile, in Hajiganj, five-year-old Samad, son of Mamun Molla, drowned in a pond at Molla Bari in the Aliganj area at around 8am.
Later in the afternoon, two-and-a-half-year-old Mozahid, son of Habib Molla, drowned after falling into a pond while playing at Molla Bari in Madhya Sanna under Bakila Union of the same upazila.
Samad and Mozahid were taken to nearby upazila health complexes, where on-duty doctors declared them dead.
Hajiganj Police Station Officer-in-Charge A Mannan said the bodies were handed over to their families.
According to Unicef, drowning is one of the leading causes of death among children under five in Bangladesh.
Around 14,000 children die from drowning each year, many during the monsoon.
On average, about 40 children drown every day in the country, according to Unicef.
