Bangladesh students demand accountability after deadly air force jet crash

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Published On 22 Jul 2025

Hundreds of protesters person rallied successful Bangladesh to request accountability aft an aerial unit combatant pitchy crashed into a Dhaka school, sidesplitting 31 people, including 25 students.

The children, galore aged nether 12, were astir to instrumentality location from people connected Monday erstwhile the Bangladesh aerial unit pitchy crashed into their school and burst into flames. The subject said the level had suffered mechanical failure.

Students from the schoolhouse and others from adjacent colleges protested arsenic 2 authorities officials visited the clang tract connected Tuesday, demanding an close decease toll and shouting, “Why did our brothers die? We request answers!”

Elsewhere successful the capital, hundreds of protesting students, immoderate of them waving sticks, broke done the main gross of the national authorities secretariat, demanding the resignation of the acquisition adviser, according to section TV footage.

The protesting students called for those killed and injured to beryllium named, compensation for families, the decommissioning of what they said were aged and risky jets, and a alteration successful aerial unit grooming procedures.

Police fired teardrop state and utilized dependable grenades to disperse the crowd, leaving astir 80 students injured,  Jamuna TV, a Bangladeshi station, reported.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Talebur Rahman said helium did not person accusation connected the fig of injured, the Reuters quality bureau reported.

The students person respective demands, said Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury, from the tract of the clang astatine Milestone School and College.

“They’re asking the authorities to accurately database the sanction of the radical who died and besides those who are injured; they privation an nonstop fig – the fig of radical who are successful the hospital. They besides privation compensation and a nationalist apology,” Chowdhury said.

“They besides privation the aerial unit to get distant from aged craft and to alteration their grooming procedures.”

The subject said successful a connection that 31 radical had died and 165 had been admitted to hospitals successful the city. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said 68 remained successful hospital, and the information of 10 of them was critical.

A connection from the property bureau of Muhammad Yunus, the country’s interim administrator, said that the government, the military, schoolhouse and infirmary authorities were moving unneurotic to people a database of named victims.

It besides said the aerial unit volition beryllium told not to run grooming craft successful populated areas.

‘The federation is mourning’

Rescue workers continued to scour the charred buildings for debris connected Tuesday arsenic distressed residents of the country looked on.

“The full federation is mourning. This is thing [that’s] ne'er happened successful this country,” said Al Jazeera’s Chowdhury.

Some parents were inconsolable.

Abul Hossain broke down arsenic helium spoke astir his nine-year-old daughter, Nusrat Jahan Anika, killed successful the crash.

“I took her to schoolhouse yesterday greeting similar each day. I had nary thought it would beryllium the past clip I would beryllium seeing her,” Hossain told Reuters. She was buried connected Monday night.

Rubina Akter said her lad Raiyan Toufiq had a miraculous flight aft his garment caught occurrence erstwhile helium was connected a staircase.

“He sprinted to the crushed level and jumped connected the writer to douse it,” Akter told Reuters.

“He tore his garment and vest inside, which saved him from terrible burns.”

Women respond  astatine  the site, aft  an aerial  unit  grooming  craft  crashed into a gathering  beryllium   to Milestone School and College campus, successful  Dhaka, Bangladesh, Women respond astatine the tract aft an aerial unit grooming craft crashed into the Milestone School and College campus, successful Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 22, 2025 [Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]

Smriti, an 11th-grade pupil astatine the school, told The Associated Press quality bureau that her eardrums felt they were “about to burst” erstwhile the level crashed.

“I saw immoderate children lying with their limbs dispersed out, immoderate of their lifeless bodies scattered around. Can you prevention them? Tell me, volition they ever beryllium capable to instrumentality to their parents’ arms again?” she asked.

The pitchy had taken disconnected from a adjacent airbase connected a regular grooming mission, the subject said. After experiencing mechanical failure, the aviator tried to divert the craft distant from populated areas, but it crashed into the schoolhouse campus.

The pilot, formation lieutenant Mohammed Toukir Islam, was among those killed. It was his archetypal solo formation arsenic helium was completing his training.

The incidental comes arsenic neighbour India is inactive grappling with the world’s worst aviation catastrophe successful a decennary aft an Air India level crashed into a aesculapian assemblage hostel successful Ahmedabad past month, sidesplitting 241 of the 242 radical connected committee and 19 others connected the ground.

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