Fighter jet crashes at Milestone school: Uttara grieves, every home mourns

Uttara remains cloaked in grief. The devastating crash of a military training aircraft at the Diabari branch of Milestone School and College, which claimed the lives of 32 people—including many children—has cast a deep pall over the neighbourhood. Every home mourns.

Since the incident on Monday, the nation has been gripped by sorrow over the deaths and suffering of so many young students. But in Uttara, the grief feels especially close. From that afternoon, daily life slowed to a standstill.

Bustling restaurants, crowded malls, and vibrant public spaces once filled with young people fell quiet by evening. Traffic inside the residential sectors thinned. The familiar rhythm of daily life dulled—muted by collective shock.

That air of mourning persisted into the next day. Tamanna Akter, a homemaker from Sector 12, told Prothom Alo that her son Mobashsher Rahman is a fourth-grade student at Milestone School. On the day of the crash, she was waiting at the school gate to pick him up. He had just left his classroom minutes before the plane crashed. One of his classmates was severely burned. It took her nearly an hour to find her son.

“Only Allah knows how I survived those moments,” she said. Her son, now traumatised, was admitted to hospital due to breathing difficulties from smoke inhalation.

That same afternoon, we spoke to Rezaul Haque, a teacher at Mymensingh Teachers’ Training College and a resident of Diabari. His two children are former students of Milestone. He said many children in Uttara attend this institution—the Diabari campus being the largest. Other branches operate in Sectors 4, 7, 11, and nearby areas.

As residents from across Uttara and adjoining neighbourhoods send their children to Milestone, the Diabari tragedy has affected far more than just the families of the deceased. The grief has spread through an entire community of parents and students. Rezaul himself was visibly shaken.

Yesterday afternoon, Ishita Jahan, a homemaker from Noyanagar (west of Diabari), came to Milestone College to witness the aftermath. Her niece, who studies at the school, was unharmed.

Ishita explained that most children in areas around Uttara—Noyanagar, Ranabhola, Puran Kalia, Shukurbhanga, Dharengar Tek, Dalipara, Khalpar—attend Milestone. Even if one’s own child does not, a neighbour’s or relative’s likely does. That’s why the whole community has been united in collective mourning.

We also spoke to Kifayet Ullah, imam of the Sector 9 Jama Mosque in Uttara. With a heavy voice, he said, “Special prayers were held at every mosque in Uttara after Zuhr. No one asked whose children had died. They were all our children. That’s why every home is weeping. People cried uncontrollably during the prayers.”

Later in the day, hundreds gathered near the Diabari roundabout. The crash site is a short walk from Uttara North metro station. Many arrived in groups, disembarking from the metro to approach the scene.

A large number of army, police, and RAB personnel were stationed in the area. Curious visitors were allowed up to the southern gate of Milestone School, but access beyond was restricted.

Monir Hossain, a mobile phone service trader from Brahmanbaria, had come to Dhaka to buy equipment. After finishing his shopping, he took the metro from Shahbagh to Uttara just to visit the site. “It’s such a heartbreaking incident,” he said. “I had already planned to come see it while coming to Dhaka. But I’m a bit disappointed I couldn’t go in.”

As dusk fell on this grief-stricken day, the outer edges of the capital grew dim. Many remained at the Diabari roundabout, their faces marked by sorrow. Their eyes held a silence too deep for words.