
Bangladesh students demand accountability after deadly air force jet crash
The children, many aged under 12, were about to return home from class on Monday when the Bangladesh air force jet crashed into their school and burst into flames. The military said the plane had suffered mechanical failure.
Students from the school and others from nearby colleges protested as two government officials visited the crash site on Tuesday, demanding an accurate death toll and shouting, 'Why did our brothers die? We demand answers!'
Elsewhere in the capital, hundreds of protesting students, some of them waving sticks, broke through the main gate of the federal government secretariat, demanding the resignation of the education adviser, according to local TV footage.
The protesting students called for those killed and injured to be named, compensation for families, the decommissioning of what they said were old and risky jets, and a change in air force training procedures.
Police fired tear gas and used sound grenades to disperse the crowd, leaving about 80 students injured, Jamuna TV, a Bangladeshi station, reported.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Talebur Rahman said he did not have information on the number of injured, the Reuters news agency reported.
The students have several demands, said Al Jazeera's Tanvir Chowdhury, from the site of the crash at Milestone School and College.
'They're asking the government to accurately list the name of the people who died and also those who are injured; they want an exact figure – the number of people who are in the hospital. They also want compensation and a public apology,' Chowdhury said.
'They also want the air force to get away from old aircraft and to change their training procedures.'
The military said in a statement that 31 people had died and 165 had been admitted to hospitals in the city. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said 68 remained in hospital, and the condition of 10 of them was critical.
A statement from the press office of Muhammad Yunus, the country's interim administrator, said that the government, the military, school and hospital authorities were working together to publish a list of named victims.
It also said the air force will be told not to operate training aircraft in populated areas.
'The nation is mourning'
Rescue workers continued to scour the charred buildings for debris on Tuesday as distressed residents of the area looked on.
'The whole nation is mourning. This is something [that's] never happened in this country,' said Al Jazeera's Chowdhury.
Some parents were inconsolable.
Abul Hossain broke down as he spoke about his nine-year-old daughter, Nusrat Jahan Anika, killed in the crash.
'I took her to school yesterday morning like every day. I had no idea it would be the last time I would be seeing her,' Hossain told Reuters. She was buried on Monday night.
Rubina Akter said her son Raiyan Toufiq had a miraculous escape after his shirt caught fire when he was on a staircase.
'He sprinted to the ground floor and jumped on the grass to douse it,' Akter told Reuters.
'He tore his shirt and vest inside, which saved him from severe burns.'
Smriti, an 11th-grade student at the school, told The Associated Press news agency that her eardrums felt they were 'about to burst' when the plane crashed.
'I saw some children lying with their limbs spread out, some of their lifeless bodies scattered around. Can you save them? Tell me, will they ever be able to return to their parents' arms again?' she asked.
The jet had taken off from a nearby airbase on a routine training mission, the military said. After experiencing mechanical failure, the pilot tried to divert the aircraft away from populated areas, but it crashed into the school campus.
The pilot, flight lieutenant Mohammed Toukir Islam, was among those killed. It was his first solo flight as he was completing his training.
The incident comes as neighbour India is still grappling with the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade after an Air India plane crashed into a medical college hostel in Ahmedabad last month, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 others on the ground.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Al Jazeera
4 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Hundreds bang pots, pans in London in Gaza hunger crisis protest
Hundreds bang pots, pans in London in Gaza hunger crisis protest NewsFeed Protesters banged pots and pans on Downing Street in London to denounce Gaza's urgent hunger crisis. The protest follows reports that over 1,000 Palestinians were shot while queuing for food. Gaza's Health Ministry says 122 people have died of starvation. Video Duration 01 minutes 47 seconds 01:47 Video Duration 01 minutes 31 seconds 01:31 Video Duration 01 minutes 40 seconds 01:40 Video Duration 02 minutes 57 seconds 02:57 Video Duration 03 minutes 36 seconds 03:36 Video Duration 03 minutes 40 seconds 03:40 Video Duration 00 minutes 37 seconds 00:37


Al Jazeera
8 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
India's Modi pledges $565m to Maldives to boost infrastructure
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a $565m credit line and launched free trade talks with the Maldives during a visit to the Indian Ocean archipelago. Modi's two-day trip, which began on Friday, is aimed at boosting India's development partnership with the Maldives, where India competes with China for influence. The Indian prime minister said the credit line was central to that goal. 'This will be used for projects linked to infrastructure development in line with the priorities of the Maldivian people,' he said, adding that the two countries would also finalise a bilateral investment agreement. Modi, who is making his first official visit to the Maldives since winning a third term last year, also stressed that India will remain the 'first responder' for the country, which has a population of approximately 525,000 people. 'India will continue to support the Maldives in strengthening its defence capabilities,' he said. 'Peace, stability, and prosperity in the Indian Ocean region are our shared goals.' India had been concerned that the Maldives was drifting towards the orbit of its rival China following the 2023 election of President Mohamed Muizzu on an anti-India platform. Since coming to power, Muizzu broke tradition by choosing to travel to China before visiting India. He also secured the withdrawal of a small contingent of Indian military personnel, who operated two search-and-rescue helicopters and a fixed-wing reconnaissance aircraft based in the archipelago. Muizzu's moves briefly soured relations with New Delhi, before India helped to prevent the $7.5bn economy from defaulting on its debt as the Maldives struggled to get tourists to its white-sand beaches and luxury resorts. Muizzu has since visited India and toned down his anti-India rhetoric. He also met Modi twice last year in New Delhi, with both leaders pledging to begin a 'new chapter' in bilateral ties. On Friday, Muizzu said the credit line from India would be used to strengthen the Maldives' security forces, as well as improve healthcare, housing, and education. 'India's continued assistance to the Maldives through the export of essential commodities is a key facet of our bilateral cooperation,' he said. Modi is due to leave the archipelago on Saturday after attending the country's 60th Independence Day celebrations in the capital, Male. The Indian prime minister will also remotely inaugurate an expansion of the international airport on the island of Hanimaadhoo, which India is helping to finance.


Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Al Jazeera
‘Shoot them': Sheikh Hasina ordered firing on Bangladesh protesters in 2024
Former prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, 'issued an open order' to 'use lethal weapons' on students protesting against her government's policies last year and shoot 'wherever they find them', her secret phone call recordings, accessed by Al Jazeera, have revealed. Hasina, who ruled Bangladesh for 15 years, resigned from office and fled to India on August 5 after weeks of bloody protests and brutal action by government forces killed nearly 1,400 people and wounded more than 20,000, according to the country's International Criminal Tribunal (ICT). The Al Jazeera Investigative Unit (I-Unit) had the recordings analysed by audio forensic experts to check for AI manipulation, and the callers were identified by voice matching. In one call, recorded on July 18 by the National Telecommunications Monitoring Centre (NTMC), Hasina told an ally that she had ordered her security forces to use lethal force. 'My instructions have already been given. I've issued an open order completely. Now they will use lethal weapons, shoot wherever they find them,' she said.. 'That has been instructed. I have stopped them so far … I was thinking about the students' safety.' Later in the call with Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, the mayor of Dhaka South and a relative of Hasina, the former PM talks about using helicopters to control demonstrations. 'Wherever they notice any gathering, it's from above – now it's being done from above – it has already started in several places. It has begun. Some [protesters] have moved.' At the time, Bangladeshi security forces had denied firing on protesters from the air, but Shabir Sharif, an accident and emergency doctor at the Popular Medical College Hospital in Dhaka, told the I-Unit that shots were fired from a helicopter 'targeting our hospital entrance'. He added that doctors attended to student protesters with unusual bullet wounds. 'The bullets entered either the shoulder or the chest, and they all remained inside the body. We were receiving more of these types of patients at that time,' he said. 'When we looked at the X-rays, we were surprised because there were huge bullets.' Al Jazeera has not been able to verify what type of bullets were used. The calls may be presented by prosecutors as evidence before the ICT, which has charged Hasina, her ministers and security officials with crimes against humanity. Hasina and two other officials were indicted on July 10, and the trial is scheduled to begin in August. Hasina's surveillance network, the NTMC, recorded these conversations. The NTMC has previously been accused of spying on not just opposition figures but even Hasina's political allies. Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor for the ICT, said the former prime minister knew she was being recorded. 'In some cases, the other side [would say we] … 'should not discuss this over telephone'. And the reply was from the prime minister, 'Yes, I know, I know, I know, I know, it is being recorded, no problem.'' 'She has dug a very deep ditch for others. Now she's in the ditch,' Islam said. Student protests started peacefully in June 2024 after the high court reintroduced an unpopular quota system that reserved state jobs for the families of veterans who fought in Bangladesh's war of independence in 1971. Many students felt the system favoured supporters of the ruling Awami League party, which had led the freedom movement, and that many jobs in the civil service were not awarded on merit. On July 16, student protester Abu Sayed was shot dead by police in the northern city of Rangpur. His death was a turning point in the July uprising, leading to a national outcry and intensifying the protests. In one secret phone recording of Hasina's ally and economics adviser, Salman F Rahman, he is heard trying to get hold of Sayed's postmortem report. During the call, Rahman quizzes inspector general of police, Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, wanting to know what had happened to the report. 'Why is it taking so long to get the postmortem report? Who's playing hide and seek? Rangpur Medical?' he asked, referring to Rangpur Medical College and Hospital, which was carrying out the autopsy on Sayed. Rangpur Medical College Hospital's Dr Rajibul Islam told Al Jazeera that police forced him to change Sayed's postmortem report five times to remove any reference to multiple bullet wounds. 'They wanted to write a report stating that Abu Sayed Bhai died due to injuries from stone-throwing … [whereas] he died from police bullets.' Twelve days after Sayed's death, his family were flown to Dhaka for a televised event with the prime minister. In all, about 40 families were gathered – all of them had relatives killed in the protests. 'Hasina forced us to come to Ganabhaban,' said Sayed's father, Maqbul Hossain, referring to the PM's residence. 'They forced us to come; otherwise, they might have tortured us in another way.' As the cameras recorded the event, Hasina handed out money to each family. She told Sayed's sister, Sumi Khatun: 'We will deliver justice to your family.' Khatun replied to the PM: 'It was shown in the video that the police shot him. What is there to investigate here? Coming here was a mistake.' In a statement to Al Jazeera, an Awami League spokesperson said Hasina had never used the phrase 'lethal weapons', and did not specifically authorise the security forces to use lethal force. 'This [Hasina's phone] recording is either cherry-picked, doctored or both.' The statement added that government efforts to investigate Abu Sayed's death were 'genuine'.