‘I left class and saw the fire… my friends are gone’

A tragic incident unfolded at Milestone School and College in Dhaka’s Diabari area when an air force aircraft crashed into the building, sparking a devastating fire. In a matter of minutes, 13-year-old Muntasir Hossain Rohan, an eighth grader, miraculously escaped with his life.
Rohan’s older brother, Ishtiak Hossain Ifti, a former student of Milestone, was near the site of the accident. “Suddenly, I saw people running and screaming,” Ifti recalled in an interview with Times of Bangladesh. “At first, I didn’t understand what was happening. Later, I heard that a plane had crashed into Milestone. I immediately rushed there.”
The crash caused the complete destruction of the Haider Ali building, which housed a coaching class on its ground floor. The aircraft entered the building through the main gate, travelling through the structure and eventually crashing into the roof, where it exploded.
“The explosion ignited the entire building,” Ifti said. “Many people on the ground floor couldn’t escape. The son of my chemistry teacher, a seventh-grade student, was burned beyond recognition and died. My brother’s classmate, Abdullah Samin, also passed away the night before. Many of the injured had 80-90% of their bodies burned.”
Outside the building, parents were breaking down in tears, unable to recognise their children. “Even ID cards were burned,” said Ifti. “There was no way to identify anyone by face. My mother was crying uncontrollably, asking, ‘Where is my son? Save my son!'”
Amidst the horror, Rohan survived against all odds. “By God’s grace, Rohan wasn’t attending the coaching class that day. He had finished his class and gone out to the field. Those who were in the coaching class stayed inside the building,” Ifti explained.
However, Rohan is still mentally devastated. Initially, he could not bring himself to speak, but slowly, he managed to share his experience. “I left class and then saw the fire, smoke, and heard screams. My friends, who were in the coaching class, they didn’t survive. I know their names. We played together, talked every day… now they’re all gone.”
Another classmate, Fayyaz, who had been ill for two days, returned to the coaching class on the third day and lost his life in the same explosion.
The incident took place when a Bangladesh Air Force F-7 BGI model training fighter jet took off at 1:06pm on Monday. Just minutes after take-off, the plane crashed into the Diabari area of Uttara, causing widespread devastation.