Milestone tragedy: Guardians demand compensation

Staff Reporter :

Grieving parents of students killed and injured in the Air Force jet crash at Milestone School and College in Uttara have demanded an inquiry, compensation, justice, and an end to coaching centre businesses linked to the school.

On Tuesday morning, parents, relatives of the deceased and injured students gathered at Diabari Golchattar, held a human chain protest in front of the school campus and demonstrated carrying placards with pictures of the victims. They condemned the coaching business and called for accountability for the crash that killed 34 and left 69 injured, mostly schoolchildren.
The parents’ demands include:
“A proper investigation into the incident and ensuring justice
“Stopping the coaching business in all educational institutions across the country, including Milestone School
“Relocating educational institutions away from runways
“Providing compensation for the dead and injured
“Removal and trial of head teacher Khadija within 72 hours
“Revealing the contents of the school’s CCTV footage
“Moving Air Force training to uninhabited area Umme Tamima Akhter, mother of Mariam Umme Afia, a class III student who died in the crash, shared a heart-breaking account of her daughter’s final days.

“I would never have sent my child to coaching,” she said. “But I did, for just a month and a half, because she came home and said, ‘Ma, if I don’t take coaching, the teachers won’t love me.’ Every day, they told her: ‘If you don’t coach, you won’t be adored.'”

Afia, a student in the Bengali medium section, had been thrilled after joining coaching. “After a week, she wrapped her arms around me and said, ‘Mother, the teachers adore me so much now.'”
Tamima added: “The children who died were all involved in coaching. A huge portion of the profits go to the school. There’s immense pressure to join. Parents don’t want this. They’re forcing children to underperform in class just to push them into coaching.”

Mohammad Abu Shahin, father of Borhan Uddin Bappi, another third-grade victim, said teachers repeatedly told him his son was “not studying well” and pressured him to enrol in coaching.
“They tortured him in different ways to force him into coaching,” Shahin said. He added that his other son, Belal uddin, is now being pressured to join the same coaching programme.