Mourning is underway at the village home of Nahida Sultana Bristhi, who was murdered while pursuing higher education in the United States.
After receiving news of the murder on Saturday, relatives and neighbors of the family gathered at the house in the ATM Bazar area of Char Gobindupur in Khojapur Union of Sadar Upazila.
They cannot understand why the talented student, Bristi, was killed, nor can they accept such consequences.
When I went home in the afternoon, I saw that the relatives were mourning. The neighbors who came to console them also had tears in their eyes.
Nahida Sultana Brishti is the daughter of Zahir Uddin Akon and Alvi Begum, a couple from that area. They have a son and a daughter. Son Zahid Hasan is an engineer. Brishti was pursuing a PhD in chemical engineering at the University of South Florida (USF) in the United States. She is a former student of Noakhali University of Science and Technology.
Relatives said that Zahir Uddin Akon had been living in Mirpur, Dhaka, with his family for many years. Everyone used to come to his village home for various events and Eid. He worked at a life insurance company in Dhaka.
Jamil Ahmed Limon and Nahida Sultana Bristhi, Bangladeshi students at the University of South Florida in the US, were missing. Limon’s body was recovered by police on Friday. Police then informed Nahida Sultana Bristhi’s family that she had also been murdered.
Although Rain’s body was not found, his family told CBS News that US police had told them that “Rain is probably not alive.”
Two charges of premeditated murder have been filed against Limon’s roommate, 26-year-old Hisham Abu Gharbiah. Police arrested Abu Gharbiah after Limon’s body was found on Friday.
Family members learned of Birshin’s death on Saturday morning.
Bristi’s cousin Tuli Akon said, “Brsti Apu was very talented. She was very good. We first found out about her death when Zahid Bhaiya (Brsti’s older brother) posted about her death on Facebook in the morning.
“But Apu was missing even before this. We don’t know how or why she was killed. One of her classmates was also killed. I heard that her body was found. But Apu’s body has not been found yet. We want justice for this incident.”
Fazila Akhter, another cousin of the deceased, said, “We cannot accept this death at all. We want the criminals punished. And we demand that Birsa’s body be brought back to the country.”