Teacher who heroically saved 20 children died of burns

On occasion, tragedies give rise to heroic people and actions. In the case of a teacher in Bangladesh who gave her life in exchange for that of 20 children, very few official governmental words have been said to thank her. And yet, that teacher still found the humility and the selflessness to say, “I did my best,” before closing her eyes for the last time.

“Those kids are my kids, too,” Mahreen Chowdhury told her grieving husband as she lay dying in a hospital, according to the BBC.

On Monday, July 22nd, thousands of students were set to leave Milestone School and College in the suburb of Uttara, in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. The school day had come to an end that day, when from one moment to another, tragedy befell as a Bangladeshi F-7 air force training jet came barrelling down into the school campus killing 31 people and injuring at least 170 more. 

Burns on almost all her body

More than 50 people were rushed to the hospital with burns. Many of them were in critical condition. Among them was Chowdry, with burns covering practically 100 per cent of her body.

Many of the victims were students who had just been allowed to leave the school when the plane crashed. Twenty-five of the victims were children between four and 18 years old.

A teacher at the college, Rezaul Islam, told BBC Bangla that he saw the plane “directly” hit the building.

Another teacher, Masud Tarik, told Reuters that he heard an explosion: “When I looked back, I only saw fire and smoke… There were many guardians and kids here.”

Chowdry was outside the building and at a safe distance from the actual crash, but she realised there were students still in the building’s classrooms. She decided she had to run back into the burning school to try to rescue as many children as she could.

‘I did my best’

“I did my best to pull out about 20 to 25 people – as much as I could,” Chowdhury’s husband, Mansur Helal, recalls her saying, moments before she was put on ventilation at the intensive care unit of Dhaka’s National Burn Institute. “I don’t know what happened after that.”

Regrettably, the heroine died later on Monday because, in the process of rescuing the children, she had suffered burns to almost all her body.

Mr Helal told BBC Bangla that he first called his wife after hearing of the fighter jet crash into his wife’s work centre. And when she did not answer his call, he asked his eldest son to go to the school to find out what had happened.

Shortly later, he received a call from an ambulance driver who notified him that his wife was being taken to the burns unit at Uttara Modern Medical Hospital.

Mr Helal said Chowdhury apologised from her hospital bed, shortly before being placed on ventilation. As he recalled their final moments together, he broke down in tears.

“She was still alive. She spoke the highest words with great mental strength,” he said.

Chowdhury laid to rest

Chowdhury had given 17 years of her life to Milestone School and College. She was buried on Tuesday in her home district of Nilphamari, in northern Bangladesh, as flags flew at half mast across the country in a day of mourning for the victims.

Bangladesh’s armed forces stated that the F7 jet had experienced a mechanical fault shortly after taking off for a training exercise at 13:00 local time (07:00 GMT) on Monday, and that the pilot, Flight Lieutenant Md. Taukir Islam had tried to steer to a less crowded area. He was among those who died that fatal day.

The crash marks the deadliest aviation disaster the country has seen in decades. Muhammad Yunus, the leader of Bangladesh’s interim government, has stated that an investigation committee has been established to examine the incident, but mentioned no intention to compensate the victims’ families.