Teacher dies saving students from inferno in Bangladesh jet crash
The 46-year-old English teacher went back again and again into a burning classroom to rescue her students, even as her own clothes were engulfed in flames, her brother, Munaf Mojib Chowdhury, told Reuters by telephone.
Maherin died on Monday after suffering near total burns on her body. She is survived by her husband and two teenaged sons.
"When her husband called her, pleading with her to leave the scene and think of her children, she refused, saying 'they are also my children, they are burning. How can I leave them?'" Chowdhury said.
At least 29 people, most of them children, were killed when the F-7 BGI crashed into the school, trapping them in fire and debris. The military said the aircraft had suffered mechanical failure.
"I don't know exactly how many she saved, but it may have been at least 20. She pulled them out with her own hands," he said, adding that he found out about his sister's act of bravery when he visited the hospital and met students she had rescued.
The jet had taken off from a nearby air base 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 campus. The pilot was among those killed.
"When the plane crashed and fire broke out, everyone was running to save their lives, she ran to save others," Khadija Akter, the headmistress of the school's primary section, told Reuters on phone about Maherin.
She was buried on Tuesday in her home district of Nilphamari, in northern Bangladesh. REUTERS
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
AsiaOne
a day ago
- AsiaOne
Sierra Leone chimp refuge shuts doors to tourists to protest deforestation, Lifestyle News
FREETOWN — The eco-lodges and tree-covered footpaths of West Africa's largest chimpanzee refuge have been devoid of tourists for more than two months as its founder stages a protest about rampant deforestation in Sierra Leone. Authorities acknowledge that the country's rich wildlife is threatened by land seizures and illegal logging, but the founder of the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, Bala Amarasekaran, says they have not yet done enough about it to convince him to reopen to visitors. "A few months back, we could see the land grabbing and the encroachment coming closer to the sanctuary," Amarasekaran told Reuters at the refuge, which is home to more than 100 mainly orphaned chimps and normally lets guests stay in its lodges. "(Deforestation) is really threatening the sanctuary's existence, because it's too dangerous when people come close to a wildlife preserve like this," said Amarasekaran, who founded the refuge 30 years ago and has led it through crises including civil war and the 2013-2016 Ebola epidemic. Sierra Leone lost approximately 2.17 million hectares (5.36 million acres) of tree cover between 2001 and 2024, representing about 39 per cent of the total in 2000, according to online tracker Global Forest Watch. The Western Area Peninsula, home to the capital Freetown and Tacugama, lost more than 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres) of tree cover during that same period. Amarasekaran said deforestation in the area was fuelled by "land grabbing" for development. The consequences of rapid deforestation were highlighted by a mudslide on the slopes of Mount Sugar Loaf in 2017 that killed an estimated 1,000 people. A 2019 paper published by the Geological Society of London blamed the incident on a mix of heavy rain, deforested slopes and unchecked construction. It said tree loss had weakened the soil's ability to absorb water and hold together, worsening the mudflow. "It's a serious problem, an existential problem," Sierra Leone's Information Minister Chernor Bah told Reuters. "We regret that the Tacugama authorities have taken the step that they have taken to shut down here, but it's one that we understand." Amarasekaran said President Julius Maada Bio's government had dispatched a task force to conduct some raids on illegal logging operations, but complained about a lack of follow-up operations. Bah said the government was committed to protecting the peninsula's forests. [[nid:720722]]
Straits Times
a day ago
- Straits Times
Sierra Leone chimp refuge shuts doors to tourists to protest deforestation
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox FREETOWN - The eco-lodges and tree-covered footpaths of West Africa's largest chimpanzee refuge have been devoid of tourists for more than two months as its founder stages a protest about rampant deforestation in Sierra Leone. Authorities acknowledge that the country's rich wildlife is threatened by land seizures and illegal logging, but the founder of the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, Bala Amarasekaran, says they have not yet done enough about it to convince him to reopen to visitors. "A few months back, we could see the land grabbing and the encroachment coming closer to the sanctuary," Amarasekaran told Reuters at the refuge, which is home to more than 100 mainly orphaned chimps and normally lets guests stay in its lodges. "(Deforestation) is really threatening the sanctuary's existence, because it's too dangerous when people come close to a wildlife preserve like this," said Amarasekaran, who founded the refuge 30 years ago and has led it through crises including civil war and the 2013-2016 Ebola epidemic. Sierra Leone lost approximately 2.17 million hectares (5.36 million acres) of tree cover between 2001 and 2024, representing about 39% of the total in 2000, according to online tracker Global Forest Watch. The Western Area Peninsula, home to the capital Freetown and Tacugama, lost more than 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres) of tree cover during that same period. Amarasekaran said deforestation in the area was fuelled by "land grabbing" for development. The consequences of rapid deforestation were highlighted by a mudslide on the slopes of Mount Sugar Loaf in 2017 that killed an estimated 1,000 people. A 2019 paper published by the Geological Society of London blamed the incident on a mix of heavy rain, deforested slopes and unchecked construction. It said tree loss had weakened the soil's ability to absorb water and hold together, worsening the mudflow. "It's a serious problem, an existential problem," Sierra Leone's Information Minister Chernor Bah told Reuters. "We regret that the Tacugama authorities have taken the step that they have taken to shut down here, but it's one that we understand." Amarasekaran said President Julius Maada Bio's government had dispatched a task force to conduct some raids on illegal logging operations, but complained about a lack of follow-up operations. Bah said the government was committed to protecting the peninsula's forests. REUTERS
Vogue Singapore
2 days ago
- Vogue Singapore
Multilingualism in Singapore—and what we lose if it declines
From a fishing village to a global powerhouse in under half a century, Singapore's meteoric rise is certainly one for the books. Multiracial, multiethnic and multicultural, the demographic make-up of this little red dot is about as diverse as it gets. So, when it came to deciding not only how the nation would communicate with the rest of the world, but also how to facilitate communication within the country, there wasn't a clear-cut solution. English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil—four official languages course through the nation of Singapore. But among the four, there is a clear hierarchy. 'To move things forward after independence, we needed a language that would connect with the rest of the world. Hence, English was chosen,' says Tan Ying Ying, associate professor of linguistics and multilingual studies at Nanyang Technological University. Simply put, English was the language that provided the most linguistic capital. It allowed us to be a competitive force on the global stage. As a nation built on the pursuit of efficiency and progress, we embraced it with open arms. But what was the cost of doing this? While English took on the role of the nation's lingua franca, to anchor ourselves in Asian values and retain a connection to our heritage, the bilingual policy was introduced. All students had to learn another language—be it Mandarin, Malay or Tamil—also known as their 'mother tongue'. But the assignment of one's mother tongue proved more arbitrary than expected. In Singapore, instead of learning your actual mother's tongue, you are told what your mother tongue is In Singapore, students are assigned their mother tongues based on ethnicity, which often does not reflect the language they had been speaking from early childhood. 'It's a strange label to be using because it defies the linguistic definition of what a mother tongue implicates,' Tan points out. 'In Singapore, instead of learning your actual mother's tongue, you are told what your mother tongue is.' Inadvertently, a paradox was born. While Mandarin was chosen to represent the Chinese population, a large majority of the community did not speak it at the time. Instead, Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese dominated households. Similarly, for the Indian population, while more than 50 percent spoke the Tamil, there were others who communicated in other languages, such as Malayalam, Punjabi or Hindi. The election of representative languages stemmed from a place of pragmatism instead of a natural evolution. And as Tan aptly remarks: 'When it comes to social engineering, any kind of controlled planning tends to have strange outcomes.' Being the primary instructional medium in schools and in the workplace, English has become the language most Singaporeans feel comfortable conversing in. 'Are we still multilingual? Yes. Are we functionally multilingual? Maybe not quite so,' Tan puts succinctly. We may sprinkle a few foreign words when ordering food or brandish our Singlish proudly in conversation, but to be functionally multilingual is a whole other playing field. Are we still multilingual? Yes. Are we functionally multilingual? Maybe not quite so Languages shape the way we view and interact with the world; it broadens perspectives and fosters connection. 'If you learn a language just to pass exams, even if you pass them with flying colours, you still won't be using it in your daily lives,' Tan notes. Instead of sharing an affinity for a language meant to foster connection to one's cultural heritage, many in turn begin to resent the language as well as the culture. It's not unlike how a humanities student may resent biology or calculus, although for the average person, knowing another language surely will come in handier than photosynthesis. For digital creator Sharlyn Seet, speaking Chinese poorly was the norm growing up. 'Back in school, I remember being proud to be what we call 'bananas'—yellow on the outside, white on the inside. For some reason, it was seen as cool not to speak Chinese properly,' she reflects. Similar to many of her peers, Seet didn't grow up speaking Mandarin at home. 'Mandarin felt like just another subject to pass. It didn't feel like something useful or relevant, and most of us treated it like a hurdle,' the 23-year-old adds. As she found herself traversing the world for business and leisure in recent years, she quickly realised how the Chinese language, which she once deemed boring, was not only an asset, but one containing a million folds of culture and history. When Seet first visited Shanghai in 2024, she felt a growing frustration due to her handicap with the language. 'I could understand what the locals were saying, but I couldn't express myself back. It felt stifling,' she recalls. 'As someone who's ethnically Chinese, I started to feel a quiet shame.' Instead of retreating further, she took it upon herself to change what she had once accepted as the status quo. The second time around, Seet discovered that learning the language did not have to be as gruelling as she once thought. 'In school, learning Chinese was results-based. Everything revolved around tests, memorising model essays and regurgitating phrases. It wasn't about developing a relationship with the language,' she explains. 'Relearning Chinese, I felt like I was reclaiming something that I had unknowingly dismissed for years. I started appreciating not just the people but the traditions, stories and values that shape our community.' Language acts as a window; it allows you to better connect with the people and its culture, modern or historic. 'Right now, we observe people picking up Korean simply because of K-pop's influence,' Tan observes. Often, the sole driving force behind learning languages is personal interest and motivation. There's no denying the boom of Korean and Japanese in the younger generation, largely due to the rising popularity of their respective cultures. And there's no doubt this includes those who may have shuddered at the thought of a language exam when they were in school. As I relearnt Chinese, I started appreciating not just the people but the traditions, stories and values that shape our community Beyond an increased appreciation for her culture and heritage, Seet recognises the pragmatic value in having another language at her disposal. 'I see a clear return on investment, both in business and in everyday life.' If cultural capital is the end goal, having more is always better than having less, is it not? But as a working adult, Seet recognises the difficulties in carving out the time to sustain a consistent learning journey. 'As an adult, it really is about how much time you're willing to invest. Watch Chinese dramas, listen to music, travel or just try reading signs on the MRT,' she suggests. 'Small everyday moments can spark curiosity and build confidence over time.' Seet acknowledges the irony of her situation. 'My mother often pokes fun at me for paying money to relearn something I could've acquired growing up,' she shares. However, Seet knows that it was a journey she had to embark on to reach where she is now. 'She's not wrong, but I'm finally doing it on my own terms,' she proclaims contently. Besides being able to converse fluently without trepidation, Seet also cites the less conspicuous benefits she has come to reap. Understanding Chinese memes, unlocking a new arena of inside jokes, and catching subtle meanings in song lyrics—she has only just begun to tap into the wealth of riches that lies beneath the surface. Order your copy of the July/August 'Home' issue of Vogue Singapore online or pick it up on newsstands now.
