PRAYAGRAJ, Jan. 15 -- Four boys from the same family drowned in a water-filled pit near a brick kiln in Kusua village, under the Puramufti police station, on Wednesday. The deceased include two brothers and two cousins. Prateek (13) and Prince (10), along with their cousins Karan (19) and Priyanshu (10), all residents of Husainpur Ahmadpur village, went out to play on Tuesday afternoon but did not return home. When they failed to come back by evening, their families informed Puramufti police and began searching through the night. On Wednesday morning, villagers found the children's clothes and slippers near a pond-like pit in Kusua village, about two kilometers from their homes. Police rushed to the spot and, with the help of locals and divers, recovered all four bodies using nets. Villagers alleged that the pit was created during illegal mining and had water filled in it. The children are believed to have drowned while bathing in the deep water. Puramufti station house officer Manoj Kumar Singh said that prima facie, the deaths occurred due to drowning. The bodies were sent for a post-mortem examination and later handed over to the families. Villagers said that a farmer from the village had given permission to the brick kiln owner to extract soil from his land. It is alleged that the kiln owner, disregarding the prescribed standards, dug a pit approximately 25 feet deep using a JCB machine....