"I searched every possible place after they went missing at 10:00am and I did not even imagine they would end up inside a water tank in their own house," Mojibur said trying to strangle a sob, squatting beside the bodies of the five children including his 7-year-old Sonia and 15-month-old Jamil on a mat beside him.

"I last saw Jamil sleeping and did not notice him going out, and that too, forever," their shock-still mother Zaheda wailed. "How can I bear this loss after losing my 13-year-old Moni just the other day?"

"Sonia was third among her 155 classmates and we dreamt of educating her to a doctor," the mother moaned.

"After Moni's death, we were taking great care of them and did not imagine we had this in store for us," the mother was struggling to talk, hugging 11-year Zahid, their only surviving child.

Four and a half-year-old Mahmuda's mother Monwara Begum fainted as well right after hearing the news. When she got back to her senses, she sat speechless.

After losing her only child, she has become alone in the house. Her husband Sharif Uddin and most of her close relatives live in Saudi Arabia.

Six-year-old Russell also drowned; he was visiting his grandmother. "My child came here to visit his granny. I did not even have a chance to see him for one last time," said a bewildered Sheuli, the mother.

She is unwilling to accept it as an accident. "Five children cannot die together, someone must have a hand in this gruesome murder," she cried.

"All hell broke loose on me when I saw a shoe of a kid floating," said Mohammad Jamil, father of another girl, Tamanna. "I could not even believe what I was seeing. I was present during the recovery, but could not say a word as if I was paralysed," he said, trying to fight back tears.