Jet crash tragedy sends shockwaves beyond school compound in Bangladesh
'Suddenly the warplane crashed with a big boom and simultaneously a small burning chunk of the plane hit Samiul on his back," said his father Rezaul Karim, a garment exporter, on Wednesday.
The father rushed towards him screaming 'help, help" when a military soldier nearby opened his shirt to wrap the boy and douse the fire. 'My boy was trembling as I grabbed him by my chest," Karim, tears still flowing, said.
Karim is not alone in describing the grief caused due to the loss of a child. Monday's crash continues to send shock waves as unrelenting stories of agonies of the children and their parents and siblings flooded news outlets and social media platforms.
A F-7 BGI aircraft, a training fighter jet manufactured in China, experienced a 'mechanical fault" moments after takeoff and crashed into a two-storey building of the Milestone school on Monday killing 32 people, including 26 children.
As scores of people passed agonising hours with pains due to burn wounds at different hospitals, many of them in critical condition, parents of young children broke down narrating memories after burying their dear ones.
A video clip on social media showed a boy running helter-skelter in bare feet with his burnt-out school dress. He could be clearly seen screaming but the video did not grab his voice.
In another video, a boy accompanied by two fellow students, was seen hastily crossing a road to enter a hospital in Uttara signaling the moving vehicles to halt with one of his burnt hands.
A Bangla daily described how a surviving student said that after coming out of the building amid smoke and dust, he went back to the crash site to one of the classrooms to see the condition of his friends, defying advice of volunteers.
He found his best friend with fatal wounds. 'My friend told me, 'I knew you will come' – just before he breathed his last," the student told the daily.
The daily Star newspaper said, fourth-grader Raisa's body was found at Dhaka's Combined Military Hospital (CMH), a day after the incident. Her parents, who were running from pillar to post till then, had recovered only her charred school bag and books from the crash site rubble.
Another underage boy Ayan from Uttara area, lying in the ICU at another hospital, repeatedly cried urging his parents to take him away. 'I don't want to stay here anymore," his father told PTI on phone quoting his son.
'Ma (mother), I'm going to school. Ta-ta!" said nine-year-old Sayma to her mother before leaving her Gazipur home on Monday morning. After a massive search from hospital to hospital, the mother found her daughter at the CMH morgue in the evening.
Yet another child who died in the crash was a class III student Nusrat Jahan Anika, youngest of three siblings. A video on social media showed her father Abul Hossain saying: 'My daughter was fun loving, always laughing and smiling. She liked to wear new dresses, liked to visit eateries to taste good food and travel to newer places. We recently toured Cox's Bazar sea beach at her insistence." Meanwhile, an air force helicopter brought Samiul Karim to Dhaka's CMH. But he did not survive the injuries. Back home, neighbours and relatives said his mother Reshma Karim continued to faint after regaining consciousness for a brief period after her younger son's death.
'My son for whatever reason did not want to go to school that day, but I convinced him not to miss his classes… how can I forgive myself?" she said.
Milestone School and College's vice principal Salma Rouf said, the bell that rang at the school to announce the end of class hours for the day virtually turned out to be a signal for the students' eternal leave. PTI AR NPK NPK
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July 23, 2025, 20:30 IST
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