NEPAL PLANE CRASH Bodies received in tears

Twenty-three bodies out of the 26 people killed in the crash of a US-Bangla Airlines flight in Nepal on March 12 were handed over to the respective families in Dhaka on Monday.
The bodies were brought in by a special flight of Bangladesh Air Force plane at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and handed over to the families after namaz-e-janaza held in tight security at Army Stadium in the evening.
By evening, many of the bodies were on way to home towns of the victims while the plane pilot Abid Sultan, also a former BAF official, was buried in the military graveyard in the evening.
After identification of the bodies, the first janaza was held at Bangladeshi embassy in Kathmandu, foreign ministry officials said at the airport. 
After customs formalities, Obaidul Quader, road transport and bridge minister, and AKM Shahjahan Kamal, civil aviation and tourism minister, received the bodies about 4:00pm.
Among them, Boishakhi Television journalist Foysal Ahmed, his friend Bilkis Ara Mitu Islam, Begum Hurun Nahar Bilquis Banu, Akhtara Begum, Planning Commission senior assistant chiefs Umme Salma and Nazia Afrin Chowdhury, software engineer Md Rokibul Hasan, development worker Md Rafiquz Zaman, his wife Sanzida Huque Bipasha, their child Aniruddha Zaman, land ministry’s retired joint secretary Md Hasan Imam, Meenhaz Bin Nasir and his wife Akhi Moni, freelance photographer FH Priok and his child Tamarra Prionmoyee, Runner Auto employees SM Mahmudur Rahman, Md Matiur Rahman and Md Nuruz Zaman Bablu, Dhaka University criminology department student Tahira Tanvin Shashi Reza were identified.
The bodies of pilot Abid Sultan, co-pilot Prithula Rashid and crew Khawaja Saifullah and Sharmin Akhter Nabila were also identified.
The BAF’s Group Captain Ahsanur Rahman and Wing Commander Zahid Ashraf flew the plane to and from Dhaka to bring the bodies.
Wing Commander Ashraf said he had been flying the aircraft for over 10 years but never carried so many bodies together.
The bodies were taken to the Army Stadium for janaza.
The bodies of government contractor Alifuzzaman, medical student Pias Roy and retired banker Mohammad Nazrul Islam were yet to be identified, according to the Bangladesh embassy in Nepal.
Dhaka Medical College forensic department teacher Shohel Mahmud, now in Kathmandu, said that DNA-profiling would be done to identify the rest.
‘We will bring rest of the bodies once they are identified,’ said US-Bangla Airlines general manager Kamrul Islam.
In the afternoon, a pall of gloom descended at Army Stadium as remains of the 23 victims were taken there.
When the bodies reached the stadium in ambulances, no words of solace were enough to stop wail of relatives. 
People from all walks of life attended the funeral prayers. 
Reminiscing their beloved ones, the saddened families, relatives and friends urged the nation to pray for the departed souls.
Co-pilot Prithul Rahsid’s mother Rafeza Begum, who was crying, urged the nation to pray for her only child who had taken up the profession to fulfil her parents’ dream.
‘Our child was a very attached to us and to all of her paternal aunts and uncle as she was the only child from that side,’ said Prithula’s aunt Firoja Akhter.
Another slain passengers Nuruzzaman Babu’s only son Hamim Nishat, an 11 years boy, was standing beside her mother holding a big photo of Babu, still not realising what happened to his father and was still thinking that his father would bring a laptop and tab for him once he returned.
Babu’s wife Sultana Akhter said that Babu, who was working with Runner Auto for 18 years, was very excited about the journey as he was heading to his first ever foreign trip in Nepal along with two colleagues.
‘Before the takeoff, he phoned me and asked what he could bring from Nepal for me and asked to look after Nishat,’ said Sultana, tears in her eyes.
The untimely death of Babu’s colleague SM Mahmudur Rahman had put the family in serious crisis as he was the only earning source of his five-member family of a wife, father, mother, a younger sister and a younger brother.
His only brother SM Mokhlesur Rahman said Mahmudur’s body will be laid to their ancestral home under Nagar Kanda upazila in Faridpur. 
Nila Jaman, mother of cabin crew Sharmin Akhter, known as Nabila, shared that they were proud of her as she was still doing her hard earned job just a few minutes before her death.
The environment of the stadium became more gloomy when the bodies in caskets were handed over to families following placing of wreaths by president’s military secretary and other state dignitaries. 
The family members, however, were not able to see the bodies of their closest ones as the bodies were charred in the crash.
On March 12, the plane carrying 71 passengers and crew crashed at the Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport. 
Of the 71 passengers and crew, 36 including, four crew, were from Bangladesh while 33 were from Nepal and one each from China and Maldives. 
Of the 36 Bangladeshis, 10 were admitted to different hospitals in Kathmandu.

On Monday, Kabir Hossain, one of the survivors, reached Dhaka in a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight and was admitted to the burn unit at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
With him, seven of the 10 Bangladeshi survivors — Mehedi Hasan, his wife Saiyada Kamrunnahar Shwarna, their relative Almun Nahar Annie, English medium teacher Shahreen Ahmed, Rubaiyat Rashid and Shaheen Bapari — arrived in Dhaka from Kathmandu and were admitted to the burn and plastic surgery unit. 
Two more survivors Rezwanul Hoque and Emrana Kabir were moved to Singapore on March 14 and March 17 while another survivor Eakub Ali was moved to New Delhi on Monday morning in an air ambulance.
Meanwhile, Afsana Khanom, wife of slain pilot Abid Sultan, had a stroke Sunday morning and she was kept on life support till Monday evening.
Afsana was admitted to National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital where doctors conducted a surgery on her, said assistant professor of the institute Shiraji Shafiqul Islam.
She had multiple clotting in the right side of her brain and as a result her body’s left side had become paralysed.
Abid-Afsans’ son Mahi was wordless as he was going to bury his father. 
Bangladesh Aircraft Accident Investigation Group chief captain Salahuddin Md Rahmatullah on Sunday joined the Nepal-led investigation into the crash and they were continuing the investigation.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net