One of the deceased Tajimuddin, 4, was the son of Saiful Islam, former member of Dolopara area under Chalhat union of Sadar Upazila of the district.

The other victim, one-and-half years old Jannatul Ferdous, was the daughter of businessman Rezaul Islam of Bokshipara area of the same union.

Local people and family members informed that Tajimuddin while playing fell into a pond adjacent to their house at noon. The locals recovered the body after about three hours.

On the other hand, Jannatul Ferdous also fell in to a pond near their home. Family members after recovering her body from the pond immediately took her to Panchagarh Modern Sadar Hospital where the attending physician declared her dead.

A 2017 study published in esteemed medical journal The Lancet said drowning accounts for an astonishing 43 percent of all deaths in the 1-4 age group in Bangladesh.

Unicef quotes a survey by the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB) that says over 18,000 Bangladeshis aged 1-18 die of drowning each year – more than 50 each day.

Most of the deaths occur among unsupervised children between one and five years old in ponds that are very close to their homes. Seventy-five percent of drownings were found to happen within 65 feet of home. Sixty percent of the victims drown between 9am and 1pm, when older siblings are at school and mothers are preparing food, gathering wood and water, or tending to crops.

The pattern is present in the deaths of Tamijuddin and Jannat also.  Chaklahat Union Parishad Chairman M Farhad Hossain confirmed the deaths of the two children.

But their deaths hardly capture the nation’s attention as say road accidents or some diseases do, leading some experts to call drowning ‘a silent killer’.