Online Desk 

The authorities of the University of South Florida have decided to award posthumous doctoral degrees to Bangladeshi students Jamal Ahmed Limon and Nahida Sultana Brishti, who were victims of a killing in the United States.

The honors will be conferred during the university’s spring commencement ceremony scheduled for May 9. The university administration officially informed the Bangladesh Consulate in Miami through a letter sent on Tuesday. According to university officials, a representative from the Bangladesh Consulate has been requested to attend the ceremony and receive the degrees on behalf of the victims’ families.

Meanwhile, the first funeral prayer for Nahida Sultana Brishti was scheduled to be held in Tampa on Wednesday at 2:00 pm local time. Her body will later be sent to Bangladesh and is expected to arrive in Dhaka on May 9 via Dubai.

Jamal Ahmed Limon, 27, was pursuing a PhD in Geography, Environment, and Policy at the University of South Florida. He was a former student of Khulna University. Nahida Sultana Brishti was studying Chemical Engineering at the same university and was a former student of Noakhali Science and Technology University.

The two students had been missing since April 16. After failing to contact them, family members informed local police near the university campus.

Later, Limon’s roommate, U.S. citizen Hisham Abugharbeh, was arrested as a suspect in the case. On April 24, investigators recovered Limon’s mutilated body inside a black bag near the Howard Frankland Bridge area in Florida. Authorities have since filed two counts of first-degree murder against the suspect.