The University of South Florida (USF) is set to award posthumous doctorate degrees to Bangladeshi students Zamil Ahamed Limon and Nahida Sultana Bristy, who were brutally killed during their studies in the US.
Limon and Bristy will be conferred with their degrees at the university's spring convocation on Friday, where 8,000 students are to graduate.
The university authorities said a minute of silence will be observed during the ceremony in memory of the two Bangladeshi nationals.
Doctorate degrees will be awarded to 353 people at the event, and two empty chairs with regalia (gown, cap and hood) will remain empty on the arena floor in honour of Bristy and Limon.
USF authorities officially informed the Bangladesh Consulate in Miami about the matter in a letter. A representative of the consulate has been requested to attend and accept the honour on behalf of their families.
Limon, a graduate of Khulna University, was pursuing a PhD in geography, environmental science and policy at USF while Bristy, a former student of the Noakhali University of Science and Technology, was studying chemical engineering.
The two 27-year-olds were in a romantic relationship. They had decided to get married after completing their doctorates, but their plans were interrupted by tragedy.
The two went missing on the morning of Apr 16. Their families found their phones switched off and could not contact them and informed the police in the university area.
On Apr 24, police recovered Limon's mutilated body near a local bridge. Police then informed Bristy's family over the phone that she had also been killed.
After Limon's body was recovered, the police arrested his roommate Hisham Abugharbieh on the same day. Two charges of premeditated murder were brought against him.
Meanwhile, during the search for Bristy, the police recovered human remains from a local water body. After examination, the family was informed on May 1 that the remains were those of Bristy.
Limon's body was brought back to Bangladesh on Monday.
He was buried at his family's graveyard in Jamalpur's Madarganj, his family's ancestral home.
The Bangladesh Embassy in Washington, DC, said funeral prayers will be held in Tampa at 2pm on Wednesday.
Her body will be sent to Dhaka on Thursday. The coffin is scheduled to arrive at Dhaka's Shahjalal International Airport via Dubai at 8:40am on
Friday. �"bdnews24
