The interim government of Bangladesh on Tuesday offered an olive branch to the students of Milestone School and College, into which an air force training aircraft crashed on Monday, killing at least 31 people.
A statement issued by the interim government’s chief advisor Mohammad Yunus’s office declared support for the six-point charter of demands which the students had raised after the air crash.
“The interim government feels all the six demands raised by the students of the Milestone School and College regarding the air crash are justified,” the statement from Yunus’s office stated.
An F-7 BGI aircraft, a Bangladesh Air Force training fighter jet, crashed into the school building in capital Dhaka’s Uttara neighbourhood.
Till Tuesday morning, the official death toll was 31, though many of the students have aired their apprehension of the toll being higher than the official count. Around 78 are being treated in different hospitals.
Milestone students who have been staging a protest outside the campus since morning have demanded that the dead and the injured be identified and the details be made public, a public apology from the army personnel who had clashed with students after yesterday’s crash, adequate compensation from the air force to the victims’ kin, scrapping of faulty and old fighter jets, and changes in the training process and facilities.
The interim government headed by Nobel laureate Mohmmad Yunus can ill afford to have another students’ movement breeding in the national capital.
A year ago, students from state and private universities in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country were up in arms against a (now scrapped) quota system for the family members of Muktijoddhas.
The upheaval on the streets led by the students ultimately resulted in the hasty departure of the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina last August. Clashes with supporters of the now banned Awami League and its students’ front the Chhatra League in Hasina’s home district Gopalganj had caused multiple deaths.
People of the neighbouring country are also upset with the delay in holding general elections, shrinking economic activities and a sense of instability in the absence of an elected government.
On Tuesday afternoon, the law adviser Asif Nazrul, education adviser C R Abrar and press adviser Shafikul Alam went to the Milestone school and tried to reason with the protesting students. The team was greeted with accusatory slogans from the students. A meeting was also held in the campus after which the chief adviser’s office issued the statement.
Nazrul has assured the students an hourly update will be provided to them from the information centre that has been set up inside the campus-cum-crash site, the nodal point for any information on the dead and the injured.
The protesters remained unhappy with the steps announced and demanded the interim government not play politics with corpses.
The crash caused a large part of Haider Ali Bhawan inside the campus to collapse. Torn and burnt notebooks of children studying in the junior sections were found on Tuesday morning.
Eyewitness accounts that appeared in Bangladesh media stated the jet after crashing on the playground, dragged itself several feet and hit the Haider Ali Bhawan before it exploded and the building caught fire. As the incident happened at the school’s closing hours several parents and students got trapped inside.
At least six of the corpses are charred beyond recognition. The interim government has announced a DNA examination to identify the remains.
Labour advisor Sakhawat Hossain visited the National Burns Institute where most of the victims are admitted.
“A team from Singapore is coming to Dhaka. If necessary the injured will be sent to Singapore for treatment,” he told the Bangladesh media.
The Indian high commission in Dhaka has offered opening doors of Indian hospitals for treating those injured. Last night Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a post on X (earlier known as Twitter) had assured all support and assistance.