An Emirates flight carrying the body of Bangladeshi PhD student Zamil Ahamed Limon left Orlando International Airport in Florida at 8:50pm local time Saturday.
The flight is scheduled to arrive at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 8:40am Monday.
Limon was one of two Bangladeshi doctoral students at the University of South Florida killed in the United States.
Bangladesh’s Consul General in Miami, Seheli Sabrin, and Consul Tuing Aye oversaw the repatriation process, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Sunday.
It noted that the Embassy in Washington, the Miami Consulate, Limon’s family, USF authorities, the Bangladeshi community in Tampa, and local police coordinated to complete legal formalities and expedite the return.
Limon’s first namaz‑e‑janaza was held on Thursday after Johr prayers at the Islamic Society of Tampa Bay Area.
Meanwhile, funeral prayers for fellow victim Nahida Sultana Bristy will be held at the same mosque at 2pm on 6 May. Her body was identified 1 May by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
With family consent, the Bangladesh Consulate requested release of her remains from the Pinellas County Medical Examiner’s Office, and officials are working to repatriate her at the earliest.
Both are 27‑year‑old doctoral students disappeared on 16 April. Limon was last seen at the off‑campus apartment he shared with murder suspect Hisham Abugharbieh, 26.
Detectives tracked Abugharbieh’s car and Limon’s phone to the Howard Frankland Bridge, where Limon’s bound and stabbed body was recovered on 24 April.
Abugharbieh was arrested days later by a SWAT team at his parents’ home. A Tampa court ordered him held without bond and barred from contacting witnesses or victims’ families.
He faces two counts of first‑degree murder with a weapon and other charges. Prosecutors have not yet said whether they will seek the death penalty.
