A family visit ended in heartbreak in Kurigram’s Nageshwari upazila on Monday when two young cousins drowned in a village pond while attempting to catch fish with a mosquito net.

The victims have been identified as eight-year-old Siam, son of Mominur Islam from Char Bishnupur, and seven-year-old Mofassira, daughter of Dulal from Khamar village. Both had accompanied their families to their maternal grandmother’s house in Dhaluabari village, situated under the Kedar Union of Kachakata police station, for a short stay.

The tragedy unfolded at around 11:00 am when Siam and Mofassira ventured out with a neighbouring child to a pond adjacent to the homestead. Eager to try their hand at catching small fish, the youngsters repurposed an old, torn mosquito net to act as a makeshift fishing net before wading into the water together.

While playing, Siam and Mofassira slipped into a deeper section of the pond and quickly submerged beneath the surface. Panicked by what transpired, the third child left the site without alerting adults or calling for help. Consequently, the family remained completely unaware that the two children were missing in the water for nearly two hours.

The situation came to light at approximately 1:00 pm when local villagers spotted Siam’s body floating on the water’s surface and immediately notified his family. Relatives and residents rushed to the scene to initiate a search effort. They retrieved Siam first, before diving deeper into the pond to recover Mofassira’s submerged body shortly afterwards.

Abu Bakkar, Siam’s paternal uncle, confirmed that the children had gone to the pond with the makeshift net earlier in the morning and expressed profound shock over the sequence of events.

Kachakata Police Station Officer-in-Charge, Arpan Kumar Das, confirmed the fatal incident, adding that a police officer was dispatched to the location to oversee the necessary legal and procedural steps.

Drowning remains a leading cause of accidental child death in rural Bangladesh, particularly in riverine districts like Kurigram where open ponds, ditches, and canals are situated mere metres from homesteads. Community members stressed that the tragedy highlights the critical need for constant adult supervision around water bodies, especially when young children visit unfamiliar surroundings during family gatherings.