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Published : 22 Jul 2025, 06:44 PM
The clock was between 1:15pm and 1:30pm.
At that very time, a Bangladesh Air Force fighter jet crashed with a deafening explosion into the Milestone School and College campus in Dhaka’s Diabari.
Moments later, everything went dark inside the two-storey building on the campus known as “Haider Ali” and flames roared through it.
The leaping fire engulfed the bodies of the children in the classroom. Most were in grades three and four.
Witnesses said the aircraft came down so fast that the ground shook for some distance around the site. Many children died in an instant.
Another person died with the children: Maherin Chowdhury.
She worked as the coordinator of that Milestone branch.
She delayed getting out while trying to save the students, her brother Munaf Mojib Chowdhury
told bdnews24.com, citing people who were there and later helped take her to the hospital. “My sister had so much mental strength,” he said.
Recounting what happened, he said: “A little while after the aircraft crash, I cannot say exactly who phoned. Someone called a member of our family and said, ‘She is in critical condition. She is being taken to the hospital. Please come.’”
Munaf and other relatives rushed to the hospital after alerting family members as soon as they got the call. He said his sister was still alive when they reached the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.
“She had been taken to the Burn Institute. We found her there. She was still alive and speaking. But her condition was very critical. She really had tremendous mental strength.”
Trying to get the students out, she was shrouded by searing flames and smoke, Munaf said, quoting witnesses. “Maherin could have escaped earlier, but she didn’t do so.”
“Those who were there told us she actually could have got out first. She did not leave. She tried to get her students out ahead of her.
“As a result, she was so badly engulfed in smoke and fire that her airway was entirely burnt,” he said.
Maherin was admitted to the Burn Institute in critical condition after being burnt. Doctors said she was fighting for life in the ICU with 100 percent burns on her body.
Just before 9pm on Monday, she died in the ICU.
On Tuesday, relatives took her body to the family home in Nilphamari. She was to be buried shortly, Munaf said.
Maherin was able to speak briefly with her husband before being put on life support.
Her husband, Mansur Helal, said: “Maherin said that after school dismissal, she was leaving with the children when the plane crashed at the gate. Even though she was burnt, she tried to save the children.”
Mansur works in the private sector. The couple have two children, both school students.
The family lived in Uttara. One of their children is just 14 and recently advanced to Class 9. The other, aged 15 or 16, is studying O Levels.
The Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate (ISPR) said in a statement on Monday that the crashed aircraft had developed a “mechanical fault”.
The Chinese-made jet was an F-7 BGI model. Details of the fault are not yet known.
The air force has formed a high-level investigation committee; the specifics will be known after the inquiry, the ISPR said.
As of Tuesday noon, the crash had left 29 people dead and 165 injured. The nation is observing a day of state mourning to remember the victims of this tragic disaster.
