The first namaz-e-janaza for Nahida Sultana Bristy, a Bangladeshi PhD student killed in Florida, was held in Tampa.
Golam Mortoza, press minister at the Bangladesh Embassy in Washington, DC, confirmed the matter in a Facebook post on Thursday.
Students, faculty from the University of South Florida (USF), and members of the local Bangladeshi community attended the funeral prayer. A representative from the Bangladesh Consulate in Miami was also present.
Following the prayer, Bristy’s body was handed over to a funeral service company, which will send it to Dhaka on Thursday via an Emirates flight departing from Orlando International Airport. A consulate representative will be at the airport.
The body is expected to arrive in Dhaka at 8:40am on 9 May.
Bangladesh Embassy in Washington, DC, in coordination with the Miami Consulate and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is managing the process. Bangladesh government is covering all costs to repatriate the bodies of both Bristy and another PhD student, Zamil Ahamed Limon.
Limon’s body reached Dhaka on 4 May. State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shama Obaed was present at the airport to hand the body over to Limon’s family.
According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Limon’s body was discovered on 24 April inside several black garbage bags near the Howard Frankland Bridge area, following a suspect’s interrogation.
Two days later, fishermen kayaking in a nearby mangrove area spotted another black polythene bag. Police were called and found dismembered human remains inside. The condition of the remains initially made identification difficult.
During a press conference on 30 April, the Hillsborough County Sheriff confirmed that the recovered remains belonged to Bristy.
