In the worst possible way to start Eid, a 2-year-old boy drowned in his village in Hatibandha upazila of Lalmonirhat district, in strikingly typical circumstances that have earned drowning the reputation of being ‘the silent killer’ of children in Bangladesh.
Habibullah, 2, was the son of Abdul Karim of Goddimari village.
Family members said he fell into the pond near his house in the village while playing by one of its banks in morning.
Later, locals spotted his floating body there. He was rushed to the Upazila Health Complex but doctors declared him dead.
Omar Faruk, officer-in-charge of Hatibandha Police Station, confirmed the matter.
In flood-prone Bangladesh, drowning is the single leading cause of death among children aged 1-17, having overtaken pneumonia and diarrhoea for over two decades now; an estimated 40 children die in this way every day around the country.