Senior leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) visited the families of several victims killed in Monday’s Bangladesh Air Force jet crash, which struck Milestone School and College in Dhaka’s Uttara.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir met the family of Flight Lieutenant Towkir Islam, the pilot who died in the crash, on Friday afternoon.
Fakhrul arrived at the Officers’ Mess of the Bangladesh Air Force in Dhaka Cantonment around 4 p.m., where he offered condolences to Towkir’s wife, Aksa Hossain Nizhum, and his parents, Tahurul Islam and Saleha Khatun.
He conveyed messages of sympathy from BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman, assuring the family of the party’s full support.
Fakhrul was joined by several retired military officials affiliated with the party, including BNP Vice Chairman and former Air Force Chief Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, former Air Chief Fakhrul Azam, and other senior ex-officers. Air Force personnel were also present during the meeting.
Towkir Islam, who joined the Air Force in 2017, died while piloting a BAF training aircraft that crashed into the school premises. He had married Nizhum, a lecturer at Brac University, just a year earlier.
He was buried in Supura, his native village in Rajshahi.
Elsewhere, BNP Joint Secretary General Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie visited the grave of Masuka Begum Nipu, a teacher who died trying to protect students during the crash.
Masuka was laid to rest in Sohagpur village, Brahmanbaria. Annie offered floral tributes and prayed at her grave, meeting the family afterward to deliver condolences from the party leadership.
In a separate visit, BNP leader Afroza Abbas led a delegation of Jatiyatabadi Mahila Dal to Bugulagari village in Nilphamari’s Jaldhaka upazila. They paid respects at the grave of teacher Meherin Chowdhury, who lost her life while rescuing students trapped inside a classroom.
Afroza offered flowers on behalf of Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman and met Meherin’s family to express sympathy.
In Dhaka, Standing Committee Member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy visited the family of Nusrat Jahan Anika, a third-grade student killed in the crash.
Visiting relatives at their home in Diabari, he delivered a personal message of condolence from the BNP chairperson and acting chairman.
He wasn’t the only one offering comfort. All week, senior BNP figures like Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku and Shamsuzzaman Dudu were seen visiting the homes of other grieving families.
For people describing their loss as a ‘sudden and overwhelming’ shock, party insiders say the visits were meant to show they weren’t alone.
The tragedy itself—a military plane crashing onto a school during a training exercise—has left the country reeling, and all eyes are now on the ongoing investigation.
