Fatema, Jannat would play, share food together

A pair of four-year-old was playing inside the house. At one point, they noticed a polythene-wrapped packet of poison kept under the bed on the porch to kill cockroaches and flies.

The duo grabbed the packet and consumed the insecticide. Their playfulness turned into agony within seconds as the two died from poisoning.

This tragic incident took place in Barpaika village under Aruail union of Brahmanbaria's Sarail upazila on Thursday afternoon. Such death of two children due to carelessness and unawareness has touched local residents along with the family members. Tears of the family members do not seem to stop.

Names of those two deceased children are: Fatema Begum and Jannat Akhter. They were cousins. Fatema is the daughter of speech-impaired Md Ilias and physically-impaired China Begum from Barpakia area in Aruail union.

Jannat is the daughter of Abul Kashem, from the same area, who takes care of his sister, China Begum, and her husband.

Grandmother to those children Rahima Begum told Prothom Alo, "The duo would play together all the day. They would share -- whatever foods they would get -- with each other. They mistook the poison for pickle and ingested it. Apple of my eyes are gone. What will I do now?" she added bursting into tear.

Earlier on 4 June, the lives of two school-going brothers Shahir Mobarat Zayan, 9, and his elder brother Shayan Mobarat Zahin,15, lost in toxic insecticide inhalation -- intended to kill cockroaches -- at their home in Bashundhara residential area in Dhaka.

Their parents had called a pest control company to spray their home with cockroach-killing pesticide. Workers of the pest-control company had asked them to enter the house after six hours and clean the entire apartment.

The family entered home to sleep, after spending time outside. In the morning, when they woke up, those two children fell sick and died later in the hospital.

According to the family of those children died in Sarail, when the children ate the cockroach poison, their grandmother, Rahima Begum, noticed it and screamed.

Later the relatives took them to a nearby pharmacy in Aruail. Then their uncle Anwar Hossain took them to Sarail Upazila Health Complex on a motorcycle, where the physician declared Fatema dead.

When her condition worsened, relatives took the other child Jannat to Brahmanbaria General Hospital with oxygen support in a critical condition.

Upon reaching the hospital around 2:30pm, the physician there pronounced Jannat dead too.

Sarail upazila health and family planning officer Md Noman Mia told Prothom Alo that the side effects count on the quantity of poison that has been consumed.

Both of the children fainted after swallowing it. If the stomach can be washed within 30 minutes of consuming the poison, there is a high chance for the patient to survive, he added.

Assistant professor at Aruail Abdus Sattar Degree College Elai Mia told Prothom Alo that the incident is extremely tragic. Children eat whatever they find before them. These deaths are a warning for all. Awareness must be raised among parents. Otherwise, such deaths will reoccur.

Civil surgeon in Brahmanbaria Mohammad Ekram Ullah told Prothom Alo that any medicine has to be kept out of children's reach. Deadly drugs like poisons and pesticides have to be stored inside the house with extreme caution. And those who sell or market these poisons should also be careful, not to sell those to anyone.

When it comes to the packaging of poisonous drugs, they should be exceptional in terms of colour. It will be better if it is in red colour. It would also be better to have red colored special warning sign or any other mark on the packaging of poisonous drugs, he added.