Bangladesh mourns 31 dead in jet crash as students protest to demand accountability

DHAKA (TIP): Hundreds of students protested near the site of the crash of a Bangladesh air force training jet into a school in the nation’s capital, demanding accountability, compensation for victims’ families and the halt of training flights. The death toll from the crash rose to 31 on Tuesday, including at least 25 students, a teacher who died from burn injuries she sustained while helping others get out of the burning building, and the pilot of the training aircraft.
Firefighters further secured the site in Dhaka’s densely populated Uttara neighborhood while the military launched an investigation. The country’s civil aviation authority was not involved in the investigation directly.
Bangladesh declared Tuesday a day of national mourning, with the flags flying at half-staff across the country.
Monday’s crash at the Milestone School and College caused a fire that gutted the two-story school building. Officials said 171 people, mostly students and many with burns, were rescued and carried away in helicopters, ambulances, motorized rickshaws and in the arms of firefighters and parents.
The protesting students demanded “accurate” publication of identities of the dead and injured, compensation for their families, and an immediate halt to the use of “outdated and unsafe” training aircraft by the Bangladesh air force. They chanted slogans and accused security officials of beating them and manhandling teachers on Monday.
The students became furious after two senior government advisers arrived at the scene, forcing them to take cover for six hours inside the school campus before additional security forces arrived and escorted them out.
Elsewhere in Dhaka, scores of students were injured after police charged them with batons. The students earlier broke through security barricades and entered the Bangladesh Secretariat complex, the country’s administrative headquarters, and security officials used stun grenades and tear gas to disperse them. They demanded the resignation of the education adviser who, they said, delayed announcing that public exams were being canceled during Tuesday’s mourning. (AP)