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Published : 22 Jul 2025, 01:26 PM
A damp, half-torn notebook lay on the ground. Scrawled on the cover were the words: Raisa Moni, Class Three, Code No. 2010, Section: Sky.
Raisa's notebook and her half-burnt schoolbag were found beside the Haider Ali Building of Milestone School and College.
After a fighter jet of the Bangladesh Air Force crashed onto the campus, part of the building was nearly destroyed in the explosion. Concrete debris now lies scattered all around.
The air at the crash site still carries the acrid smell of burning. Scattered across the area are children’s books, notebooks, half-burnt schoolbags, and charred chairs.
It has been 24 hours since the crash, and third-grader Raisa is still missing. Her family has been searching from hospital to hospital across Dhaka.
Raisa is the daughter of Shahabul Sheikh from Faridpur's Bazra village. Shahabul runs a business in Dhaka’s Mirpur area.
With no word about her daughter, Raisa’s mother Rabeya Khatun Mim returned to the school on Tuesday morning. Her brother found Raisa’s notebook and bag among a pile of debris near the Haider Ali Building.
On Monday, a Bangladesh Air Force F-7 BGI aircraft crashed onto the campus of the school in Uttara's Diabari.
According to witnesses, the jet crashed into the school playground and then skidded into a two-storey academic building. The aircraft burst into flames, and the fireball quickly engulfed the building.
It was around the end of the school day, and many parents had gathered near the building. After the crash, the entrance was blocked, trapping everyone inside.
Following the rescue operation, 17 bodies, including the pilot’s, were recovered. Another 171 were rescued alive, most of them children, many with severe burns.
Later, 10 more injured victims succumbed to their injuries at hospitals, bringing the death toll to 27. Another 78 people remain hospitalised, many in critical condition.
Among the dead, 20 bodies have been handed over to families, but six are so badly burnt that they cannot be identified.
Is Raisa among them? Only a DNA test can provide the answer.
Like Raisa’s mother, many other parents gathered outside the charred school building on Tuesday.
Taslima Akter, another parent, said: “It’s unbearable to accept the tragic deaths of these students. I cried all night. It still feels unreal. I rushed here again at dawn. We demand a proper investigation and justice.”
A day after the tragedy, crowds of curious onlookers gathered at the school grounds. Many were seen scrambling to take pictures and videos.
Police officers remained deployed at the crash site. The Haider Ali Building has been cordoned off with yellow tape. Members of the CID’s forensic team collected evidence from the site.
Milestone School and College students staged protests near the campus from the morning, pressing for six demands, including compensation for the families of all dead students.
Around 9:45am, Law Advisor Asif Nazrul arrived and faced anger from the protesting students. As tensions simmered, he acknowledged that all of their demands were “reasonable”.
In the wake of the tragedy, Bangladesh is observing a day of mourning on Tuesday.
The national flag was lowered to half-mast at all government, semi-government, autonomous, and educational institutions across the country.
Special prayers are being held at places of worship across the country.
