Little Aniruddha used to pray to Allah so he and his parents would be granted heaven… “Now, I am praying the same for him and his parents,” Shahriar Abir Mithun said choking back tears.

Shahriar is the younger brother of Sanzida Huque Bipasha who along with her seven-year-old son Aniruddha Zaman and husband Rafiquz Zaman died in a US-Bangla Airlines plane crash at Tribhuvan airport in Nepal on March 12.

He was speaking at a memorial programme at Central Public Library in the capital yesterday.

Civil society platform Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan), where Sanzida worked as an associate coordinator, organised the programme in memory of all who died in the crash. 

The crash of Flight BS211 in Kathmandu killed 51 people including 26 Bangladeshis. The bodies of three Bangladeshis remain unidentified. At least 20 people survived the crash, 10 of them Bangladeshis.

Speaking at the programme, eminent personalities demanded a thorough investigation of the crash to determine whether the crash was due to inefficiency or negligence by either the airline or the airport authorities.

Eminent jurist Barrister M Amir-Ul Islam said the government should demand compensation at global level since the airport lacks the capacity to handle such a large volume of flights.

Former chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda demanded the crash investigation report be made public. “It happened due to mismanagement, which takes place frequently in the country,” he said.

Shujan President M Hafiz Uddin Khan and Secretary Badiul Alam Majumdar, Gonoshasthaya Kendra Founder Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury, noted columnist Syed Abul Maksud, rights activist Hamida Hossain and Dhaka University Professor Asif Nazrul also spoke.