Seven girls drowned while performing religious rituals in a pond in Latehar district of Jharkhand on Saturday morning.

The girls had gone to the pond for immersion after Karma Puja, a popular harvest festival of tribals in Jharkhand sources said.

According to reports, six girls were from the same family and all the deceased were residents of the same hamlet Manandih Tola in Bukru village under Sheregada panchayat of Balumath block in Latehar district, around 120km from Ranchi.

“Around 10 girls had gone to immerse the Karma wood in the village pond. One of the girls fell into a deep pit dug during the construction of the Tori-Balumath Shivpur railway line. While trying to rescue her, six other girls drowned as they were holding each other’s hands and fell into the pond. Four girls were found dead when their bodies were taken out while the remaining three were declared brought dead by doctors at the Balumath Primary Health Centre,” said a source in the Balumath police station.

A pall of gloom descended on the entire block following the incident.

The police have sent the bodies of all seven girls for post-mortem at Latehar Sadar Hospital.

The deceased have been identified as Rekha Kumari, 17, Lakshmi Kumari, 8, and Reena Kumari, 11, all three daughters of Akhlu Ganjhu, Meena Kumari, 8, daughter of Laldev Ganjhu, Pinki Kumari, 15, daughter of Jaggan Ganjhu, Sushma Kumari, 7, daughter of Charan Ganjhu, and Sunita Kumari, 20, daughter of late Bifa Ganjhu.

Villagers later staged a protest along National Highway 98 connecting Chanda (in Latehar) with Chatra demanding Rs 20 lakh compensation, government job for each of the deceased girl’s family and directing the railways to immediately fill up the trenches dug for laying the tracks.

Chief minister Hemant Soren in a tweet on his official Twitter handle expressed shock at the incident.

Latehar deputy commissioner Abu Imran has constituted a high-level team to probe into the incident.

“The agitated people have stopped their protest. A high-level team led by Latehar deputy development commissioner Surender Kumar, sub-divisional magistrate Shekhar Kumar, district mining officer Anand Kumar, district social welfare officer Bindeshwari Tattma and child welfare committee chairperson Reena Kumari has been directed to identify the reason for the mishap. We will give compensation to the family members as per the government norms, said Imran.

Sources in the district administration said that if the probe team finds the railways was not filling up trenches, it will be asked to give jobs on compassionate grounds to the family members of the victims.