Five boys drown while playing in West Bengal's Murshidabad

BEHRAMPORE: Five boys, aged between five and eight, drowned in a pond near a brick kiln at Dakshin Sayardiyar in Ranitala police station area of Murshidabad on Wednesday evening.
According to residents, the children played at the brick kiln every evening and the tragedy apparently unfolded after the youngest among them, Shakil Sk, slipped and fell into the pond. The four others have been identified as Mintu Sk, Ibrahim Sk, Yunus Sk and Ajmal Sk.
“It seems the others went in to rescue Shakil and drowned.The pond is quite deep. The bodies were spotted by a person who went near the pond to relieve himself. Police reached the spot around 6pm and fished them out for post-mortem,” a resident said.
A pall of gloom has descended on the neighbourhood, 50km from district headquarters Behrampore. “I had often told the boys not to go near the brick kiln, saying there are snakes and other perils, but they wouldn’t listen. The boys would sneak out every evening and meet at the kiln,” said Yunus’s mother Tahmina Bibi.