The boy seen running—his skin burned, his clothes scorched—in one of the most haunting videos from the Milestone jet crash has now lost his battle for life.
15-year-old Mahtab Rahman Bhuiyan, a seventh-grade student of Milestone School’s English version, passed away on Thursday afternoon at 1:50 PM at the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery after four days of fighting for survival.
In his final words to his father, he had said:
“Baba, don’t worry about me, I will get better, InshaAllah.”
But instead of coming home, Mahtab was taken back to his village—to be buried.
Mahtab suffered over 70% burns when a Bangladesh Air Force fighter jet crashed into the Milestone school building in Uttara on July 21. His image—dashing out of the flames, his body severely burned—circulated widely on social media, symbolizing both horror and hope in the immediate aftermath.
He was first taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, and later transferred to the Burn Institute’s ICU. Despite doctors’ efforts, his condition continued to deteriorate.
On Thursday evening, Mahtab’s body was brought back to his family’s ancestral home in Chulash village, Debidwar upazila, Cumilla. He was laid to rest beside his great-grandfather’s grave after a funeral prayer at the local Eidgah field, attended by relatives, neighbors, classmates, and the local UNO.
His father, Minhajur Rahman Bhuiyan, who used to personally drop Mahtab off at school every day, was just nearby when the plane crashed.
“My golden boy tried to console me even in that state. He said not to worry, that he would recover. But Allah had other plans,” he told Gonotaar, his voice breaking.
Mahtab was the second among three siblings. His elder sister Nabila is a tenth-grade student at the same school. His youngest sister Naisa is just three years old.
A bright, gentle soul with his whole future ahead of him, Mahtab now becomes one of the many young lives claimed by a tragedy that has left the nation stunned, grieving, and questioning.
His student ID was 1014. His school uniform hangs unused in a closet in Uttara.
