University of South Florida (USF) will award posthumous doctoral degrees to Jamil Ahmed Limon and Nahida Sultana Bristy, two Bangladeshi students who were brutally killed in the United States.
The degrees will be conferred during the university’s spring commencement ceremony on 9 May.
The decision was formally sent to the Bangladesh Consulate in Miami on 5 May, with a request for a consular representative to accept the honors on behalf of the victims’ families. A representative will attend the ceremony to receive recognition for Limon and Bristy, reports WTSP.
Meanwhile, the first funeral prayer for Bristy is scheduled for 6 May at 2pm in Tampa. Her body is expected to be flown to Dhaka via Dubai on 7 May, arriving on 9 May at 8:40am.
Limon, 27, was a graduate of Khulna University and was pursuing a PhD in geography, environment, and policy at the University of South Florida. Bristy, also 27, had previously studied at Noakhali Science and Technology University and was studying chemical engineering in the US.
The two went missing on 16 April. After their families lost contact, they alerted local police. US authorities arrested Limon’s roommate, Hisham Abugharbeh, at his family home.
Following interrogation, Limon’s mutilated body was found on 24 April in garbage bags near the Howard Frankland Bridge area, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. Abugharbeh has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
