Unable to find the backed up photos in iCloud
Why your photos are not in iCloud Photos


  Now when I open iClould I see its completely blank.


Photos do not appear on iCloud.com unless iCloud Photo Library was turned on; from your description, it seems that it is not turned on: that is why the Photos section of iCloud is completely blank. You evidently did not have iCloud Photo Library turned on, so photos were tied to your device backup instead of being tied to your iCloud Drive. Thus, your photos are not visible from your iCloud account. But have no fear, that doesn't mean you can't access your photos.



How to get your photos back

You'll need a new/used iPad that runs iOS 7 or later (so iPad 2 or later, iPad Mini 1 or later). You can buy a relatively inexpensive used iPad Mini 1st gen here for ~$150, or upgrade to an iPad Mini 4th gen (the latest and greatest) here for ~$350. Make sure the iPad you purchase has at least as much storage space as your lost iPad before you buy it. (Note: Apple may offer to exchange your dead iPad if you contact their support team at getsupport.apple.com)

When first launching the iPad (if it's used, you must do a factory reset first if it still has data on it), follow these steps to set it up from a backup of your lost iPad Mini:


Turn on the new iPad.
From the Apps &amp; Data screen, tap Restore from iCloud Backup, then sign-in to your iCloud account.
Proceed to “Choose backup,” then choose from a list of available backups in iCloud (probably just choose the latest backup).


After following these steps, your new iPad will boot up and have all of the data from your lost iPad Mini, including all of your photos.



What to do to prevent this next time

I recommend using the Google Photos app to seamlessly back up all of your photos/videos (free of charge, unlimited photos and videos). With Google Photos, you can access the backed-up photos/videos anytime on almost any device (including from the web at photos.google.com). Or, you can turn on Apple's iCloud Photo Library, in Settings -> iCloud -> Photos, which lets you access the photos anytime from icloud.com. (Note that iCloud Photo Library eats up your iCloud storage space and isn't free or unlimited like Google Photos is.)



Let me know if you need any further assistance, and please let me know whether this helped you or not!

Sources:


Apple's guide to restoring an iPad/iPhone from a backup
iCloud Photo Library info
iMore's guide to iCloud Photo Library