Raisa Moni found, but only to be buried

For over 24 hours, 11-year-old Raisa Moni's family had been searching for her frantically. From one hospital to another, from the crash site to morgues, they clung to the hope that she was among the rescued, that she was somewhere -- alive.

Just after a battle aircraft crashed into the ground floor of a two-storey building of Milestone School and College, the mother of Raisa Moni, a third-grader at the school, stood undeterred on campus, desperately searching for her little girl.

After waiting till late in the evening, Raisa's uncle Jakir Hossain took over the search, sending her exhausted mother home. "I went to Dhaka Medical, CMH, Uttara Adhunik, and four other hospitals. I can't find our Raisa," he said on Monday night.

After a day of relentless searching, Raisa's charred body was discovered and identified at Dhaka's Combined Military Hospital (CMH), her uncle Imdadul Sheikh told The Daily Star at 8:45pm last night.

Raisa is among the 31 who have died so far in the fatal jet crash.

Earlier in the afternoon, the child's father, Shahabul Sheikh, a businessperson, identified her body at the CMH morgue.

The family, hailing from Faridpur's Alfadanga upazila, currently live in the capital's Mirpur area.

Raisa was the second of three siblings, with an elder sister and a younger brother.

Her uncle Imdadul told this correspondent, "Since the crash, we had been searching frantically for Raisa.

"Today [yesterday] around 1:30–2:00pm, we received confirmation that she is no longer with us. Her father identified her body."

He said Raisa suffered 80 percent burns, mostly from her head to abdomen. Despite the severity of the injuries, her father was able to identify her face.

Following the identification, Raisa's remains were sent from CMH to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for DNA sampling.

Police said her body would be handed over to the family after the samples were collected.

Once released, her body will be taken to her ancestral home in Bajra village in Alfadanga upazila, where she will be laid to rest.