On World Teachers’ Day, students honour their mentors with gratitude—but one name carries an especially profound weight: Mahreen Chowdhury.
On July 21, after a training aircraft crashed into Milestone School’s Haider Ali building, setting classrooms ablaze, Mahreen didn’t run to safety—she ran into the flames to save her students. In doing so, she suffered fatal burns.
At the hospital, she told her husband, Mansur Helal, “They are my children too—how could I leave them behind? Let anything happen to me, but I could never abandon my students in that burning hell.” Rushed to the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery with 100 percent burns, her body was charred beyond recognition. Still, she whispered to Mansur, “You came? I am going to my parents now,” and reminded him her jewellery could support their children’s education.
Her students remained in her thoughts until the end, Mansur recalled. She often told them that destiny would take its course, but education was non-negotiable, urging them to study at least up to a master’s level—even on her deathbed.
She passed away around 8:45pm, leaving behind Mansur and their two children. “Every day still feels like she’s at home,” he said. Her mornings had been filled with feeding birds, preparing breakfast and lunchboxes, and cycling three kilometres to school, returning in the late afternoon.
After graduating in English from Manarat International University in 2006, Mahreen joined Milestone in 2007 as an English and Social Studies teacher, later becoming coordinator in 2019. Her role meant guiding parents, colleagues, and students even late at night. She often offered support past midnight to those in need, including colleague Masuka Begum, who also died in the tragedy.
Her elder son, Aiyan, 16, is now sitting for O-levels, and her younger son, Adil, 14, is in grade nine. “To them, their mother was not just a guardian, but a friend and constant guide,” Mansur said.
Earlier this year, Mahreen was elected president of Boglagari School and College in Nilphamari’s Jaldhaka and had expressed a wish to enter politics, aiming to serve her nation. “But before that, she wanted to serve through social and educational work,” Mansur added.
