Building hit in Milestone crash is being demolished. But memorial plans still uncertain

School authorities say the incident remains too painful to discuss, adding they have received no proposals on commemorating those who died

Crowds gather outside the shattered Milestone School and College building on Jul 22, 2025, a day after the crash.

Concrete rubble. Scorched chairs. Burnt schoolbags. Exercise books scattered across the ground. Those were the haunting images left behind at Milestone School and College in Uttara.

The day after the air disaster a year ago, crowds gathered to witness the devastation.

Now, another scene is unfolding.

The building into which the aircraft tore is now being demolished, raising a difficult question: when the walls disappear, what will become of the memory of the children who never came home, and of the teacher who gave her life trying to protect them?

The school says it wants to preserve those memories. But it has yet to decide how.

A Building Falls, Questions Remain

Around 1:18pm on Jul 21 last year, an F-7 BGI training aircraft crashed directly in front of the building before smashing into it.

The disaster killed 35 people -- including 28 students, three teachers, three guardians and one director -- while another 172 suffered burns.

Nearly three months later, on Oct 12, bereaved parents and students staged a human chain, presenting a nine-point list of demands. While they sought compensation for those killed and injured, preserving the site as a memorial was not among them.

A visit to the campus on Sunday showed demolition already under way.

The building has been sealed behind high corrugated metal fencing, leaving little visible from outside. Workers have nearly completed dismantling its second floor.

Retired colonel Nurun Nabi, the school's founder and advisor, said the demolition was being carried out on the instructions of the capital development authority RAJUK.

"We are demolishing it now, but we will try to preserve the memory in some way," he told bdnews24.com. "We have not yet planned what that will be. RAJUK instructed us to demolish the building, so that is what we are doing."

Asked whether bereaved families had proposed ways to commemorate the tragedy, he said the issue had not yet been discussed.

"The tragedy still causes us so much pain that we have not thought about it yet. We have not received any proposal or recommendation on how the memories should be preserved."

For some parents, however, the answer is already clear.

Md Rubel Mia, whose son Tanvir Ahmed was among those killed, said the children deserved to be remembered.

"Of course we want our children's memories to be preserved," he said.

But he does not want a monument.

"We are Muslims, so we do not want a memorial or monument to be built here."

Instead, he hopes the school authorities will build a mosque on the site where the aircraft crashed.

"If the authorities build a modern mosque here, we can come and offer prayers and pray for our children. That is what we want."

As the wrecked building disappears brick by brick, the physical scars of the disaster are fading.

How Bangladesh chooses to remember those who died there, however, remains an unanswered question.