Dhaka, May 9 -- Under a heavy, suffocating silence that seemed to hang over Dhaka's airport, a coffin arrived from the United States carrying not a returning scholar, but the broken remains of a dream called Nahida Sultana Bristy.

At 9:10am on Saturday, an Emirates flight from Dubai touched down at Shahjalal International Airport.

By 10:20am, her family stood face to face with the coffin that replaced years of hope, ambition and sacrifice.

Bristy had once left through these very gates with laughter, dreams, and her parents' faith behind her -- bound for a PhD in the United States.

She was meant to return in triumph, a doctorate in hand, on Jul 17. Instead, she returned early, in silence, in a coffin.

As the casket was handed over, gr...