Students at Milestone School and College in Dhaka alleged on Tuesday that at least 150 individuals mostly children were killed when a Bangladesh Air Force fighter jet crashed into their school building, sharply contradicting the government’s official death toll of 31.
The crash, which occurred on Monday morning, has sparked outrage and mass protests by students demanding the government disclose the true number of casualties and launch an independent investigation.
Students accused authorities of attempting to conceal the scale of the tragedy by removing bodies and suppressing information.
At approximately 01:12 a.m. local time on Monday, a Bangladesh Air Force fighter jet reportedly lost control during a training exercise and collided with a three-storey academic building at the Milestone School and College campus in Uttara, a densely populated suburb of Dhaka.
Eyewitnesses described scenes of chaos and devastation. Flames engulfed classrooms, trapping hundreds inside. Students and teachers attempted desperate rescues amid collapsing walls and thick smoke.
Imran Hossain, a security guard on campus, told, “The moment the jet crashed, the whole building exploded in fire. There were screams everywhere. We tried to help but it was impossible to get inside.”
Rescue teams and ambulances arrived quickly but struggled to reach survivors in the wreckage. By late Monday, government officials declared the rescue operation complete, confirming 31 deaths and dozens injured.
However, students and teachers who witnessed the disaster and assisted with rescue efforts disputed the official numbers.
“We saw many more bodies than the government admits,” said Imran Hossain, a Class XI student. “At least 150 people were killed — students, teachers, and staff.”
Several teachers said they witnessed security forces forcibly removing bodies late at night, sometimes in unmarked vehicles, fueling suspicions of a deliberate cover-up.
“They took away bodies when rescue was supposedly over,” said one teacher, requesting anonymity for fear of reprisal. “We were warned not to speak or document the casualties. Some colleagues were even threatened.”
The government’s Chief Adviser’s press wing issued a statement denying allegations of hiding bodies or suppressing information, calling the claims “baseless” and asserting that all operations were transparent.
Tensions boiled over on Tuesday when senior government officials — law adviser Asif Nazrul, education adviser C.R. Abrar, and press secretaries Shafiqul Alam and Abul Kalam Azad Majumder — visited the campus to meet with students and teachers.
Students angrily confronted the officials, chanting slogans accusing them of deception and demanding full disclosure of the death toll.
The officials were confined inside a conference room for nearly three hours as the students refused to let them leave without promises of transparency.
In a rare public apology, law adviser Asif Nazrul acknowledged “misbehavior by security forces” during rescue operations and pledged that the government would accept all demands from students, including setting up a control room to provide hourly updates on casualties.
“We understand the pain and anger of the students and their families,” Nazrul said. “We are committed to publishing the exact number of deaths and injuries as soon as possible.”
Bangladesh’s military aviation has seen a rapid expansion in recent years, but concerns about maintenance standards and pilot training have periodically surfaced.
This incident marks one of the deadliest accidents involving the Bangladesh Air Force and has ignited fears about safety oversight.
The controversy surrounding the official death toll has intensified scrutiny on the government’s crisis management and information transparency.
With parents still searching hospitals and morgues for missing loved ones, the tragedy at Milestone School has become a flashpoint for wider discontent.
“A third-grade student was brought in dead, and three others — aged 12, 14, and 40 — were admitted with critical injuries,” said Dr. Bidhan Sarker, head of the burn and plastic surgery unit at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where several victims of the Milestone School air crash were rushed following the incident.
“I was at the gate to pick up my children when I felt something surge from behind,” recalled Masud Tarik, a teacher at the school. “Then came the deafening explosion. When I turned around, all I could see was an inferno — flames and thick smoke swallowing the building.”
The catastrophe unfolded just over a month after the world’s deadliest aviation disaster in a decade — an Air India aircraft crashed into a medical college hostel in Ahmedabad, western India, killing 241 of the 242 passengers and 19 people on the ground.
Source : The Chittagong Hill Tracts
