2 minors drown in Shalimar City pond

Ghaziabad: Two boys drowned while swimming in a pond behind Shalimar City on Friday evening. According to police, their bodies were spotted by the local people.
The police said the area where the accident happened is used as a playing ground by children from the neighbourhood, which is at a depth from the surface. “Every monsoon, rain water is collected at the spot and children go there for swimming,” a police officer said.
The deceased have been identified as Gijaansh (10) and Hanan (11), both were living in Saheed Nagar with their parents. Police have sent the bodies for autopsy and reports are awaited.
Their families said the three children had left home around 4pm on Friday and told them that they were going to play as usual in a nearby field. When they did not return home after dark, their parents informed the police.
Rafeeq, Gijaansh’s father, who works as an auto-rickshaw driver, said that around 3.30pm on Friday, his son told him that he is going to play with his friends. “Usually he returned around 5.45pm and when I was supposed to leave for work, I asked my younger brother to go and ask Gijaansh to return home. When he failed to trace him, I started looking for him but couldn’t find him and then went to the police station,” he said.
Police reached the spot and the locals told them that the two children had raised an alarm after which they tried to save them but they died before they were pulled out from the pond. Abhishek Verma, SP (city), of Ghaziabad said that the accident happened around 6.30pm.