'Maa, give me air': Chhamim's final plea before flames took him

The heat inside the ambulance was suffocating.

"There's no AC… it's too far," twelve-year-old Abdullah Chhamim gasped. "Maa, give me air. Just a little water… I'm so thirsty." His voice, scorched and shaking, barely rose above a whisper.

Beside him, his mother Zulekha Begum held his hand tight, murmuring prayers as the ambulance was making its way through Dhaka's traffic.

Her son was slipping away.

"Why is the hospital so far?" he asked, tears in his eyes. "People will die before they get there."

Just before reaching the burn unit, Chhamim turned to his mother and sister. Through his oxygen mask, he asked the only thing that mattered: "Will you stay with me? Promise you won't leave."

She nodded, holding back tears.

Chhamim didn't make it.

Yesterday morning, he was buried in their village in Shariatpur, beside the grave of his father, Abul Kalam Azad.

Monday morning had begun like any other. Chhamim left for school with his bag on his back. A sixth-grade student at Milestone School and College, he never imagined the sky would fall.

Later in the afternoon, a training aircraft plunged into a building of his school in Uttara. Chhamim was pulled from the wreckage and rushed to the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.

By 10:30pm, his heart had stopped.

Just after dawn the following day, his body arrived at DM Khali village in Bhedarganj.

People from across the community gathered at Char Boyra High School for janaza prayers. At 10am, he was lowered into the ground – right beside his father, who had died just seven months earlier in Saudi Arabia.

"We buried my brother-in-law here after months of legal work," said Saiful Islam, Chhamim's uncle. "Now I've buried his son. How do I console my sister?"

Zulekha had returned from Saudi Arabia three years ago with her children, hoping to start again in Uttara. Her husband stayed back for work, but died in December. She was still grieving when the second blow came.

"This wouldn't have happened if there wasn't a training base in such a densely populated area," Saiful said bitterly. "Why are planes flying so low over schools? Move the base – no more innocent children should have to die like this."