Milestone tragedy: Victim’s body transported to Barishal home at family expense, relatives say no aid offered
The family of a victim, who was among the dead in Monday's Milestone College plane crash, alleged that they were not offered any support either by the government or the Bangladesh Air Force in transporting the deceased student's body to their Barishal home from Dhaka for burial.
Zakir Hossain, an uncle of the deceased Samiul Karim, told The Business Standard that the Bangladesh Air Force was expected to facilitate the transportation of Samiul's body to his home. "However, we did not receive such assistance."
Zakir also alleged that the Air Force was responsible for the plane crash. "Students were killed due to a plane of the Bangladesh Air Force [that crashed] . They [Air Force] did not provide any service to any student after the incident."
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His uncle Zakir further added that they received Samiul's body yesterday and transported it to Barishal's Mehendiganj by a freezing ambulance on their own. "We did not receive anything from them [Air Force]."
He also alleged the lack of cooperation from both the police and the Army in collecting the body from the hospital morgue. "The bodies were lined up in the morgue. My nephew's body was covered with a cloth. I could only identify him by looking at his feet."
Deceased Samiul Karim, son of Rezaul Karim from Jankisingh Road in Barishal district town, was a seventh-grader at Milestone School.
Samiul was laid to eternal rest at their family graveyard in Chanpur union of Mehendiganj upazila following his namaj-e-janaja there yesterday.
Family of the deceased alleged that though the funeral was attended by local leaders of the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, the upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) was not present.
Mehendiganj UNO Riazur Rahman could not be reached over the phone for his comments despite several attempts made from the TBS.
Barishl Deputy Commissioner Delwar Hossain was also absent at Samiul's funeral.
Contacted, the DC told TBS that he was not aware of the funeral event.
