Meerut, Aug. 5 -- A day after they went missing, the bodies of three children, aged 8 and 9 years old, were found in a vacant plot in Sival Khas town of this district on Monday morning, police said. Even as police were currently treating the case as accidental drowning, pending the post-mortem report, the families alleged that their children were murdered as part of superstitious practices. All three kids-Ritik, 8, Shibu, 8, and Manvi, 9-were from Sival Khas and lived in the same locality. According to the families, the children were last seen when they had gone out to play around 11 am. When they did not return home for several hours, family members began searching for them and lodged a missing complaint at the Jani police station. Despite overnight efforts of police and surveillance teams, the children could not be traced till 6 am on Monday. Their bodies were discovered barely 200 meters from their houses in a plot that was partially filled with water. Reportedly, the children were found bleeding from their noses, mouths and ears. "There's no way they drowned. There isn't even enough water in that plot," a grieving relative said. "This is not an accident. Our children were sacrificed and dumped there." According to the relatives, they searched the area Sunday evening but found nothing. "We looked there ourselves, and the children were not there," a parent said. The allegations triggered a protest at the local police outpost, with people demanding the immediate arrest of those responsible for the deliberate and brutal killing....