Hundreds of people gathered at Sproul Plaza at noon Tuesday to pay their respects to Tarishi Jain, a UC Berkeley student murdered by Bangladesh terrorists last week, and others killed in the attack.
Under gray and foggy skies, Jain’s friends from her dorm, classes, and campus groups described a young woman who was sweet, generous, altruistic, and intelligent. They urged the crowd to remember the 18-year-old for all her accomplishments and friendships, not for her brutal death.
“She was one of the sweetest and most sincere people I had ever met,” said Jain’s friend Mackenzie Monroe.
Aaliyah Parker, who lived on the same floor in Unit 3 as Jain during the 2015-2016 school year, recounted some of their favorite moments together. Jain tore her ACL during the year. Jain’s mother came to take care of her daughter and cooked “the best Indian food. Parker said she also tried on one of Jain’s saris once and the two talked about the future when Jain would marry. Parker pledged to come to India for the ceremony.
“Those are the type of moments taken from her for a senseless and ill-reasoned extremist thought,” said Parker.
The speakers at the vigil included Chancellor Nicholas Dirks, William Morrow, president of the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC), Lawrence Cohen, director, Institute for South Asia Studies, Venkata Ramana, consul for community affairs, Indian Consulate of San Francisco, other officials and number of Jain’s close friends.
Jain was killed July 2 when seven Bangladeshi terrorists took over the restaurant where she was eating dinner. They held about 20 patrons of the Holey Artisan Bakery, in Dhaka’ s diplomatic quarter, hostage for about 11 hours. The terrorists killed Jain, two other U.S. college students, and about 17 others because they were “foreign.” Six of the seven terrorists, who were connected to ISIS, were killed by police when they finally stormed the restaurant. The men were apparently from the Bangladeshi upper class, according to news reports. Two police officers also died that evening.
Jain and two of her friends, fellow graduates of the American International School of Dhaka, were eating in the restaurant’s garden when the terrorists stormed the restaurant. They ordered the trio, all of whom attended college in the U.S., back inside, according to the New York Times. Jain survived for many hours that evening by hiding in the bathroom. She was able to make a telephone call to her family about an hour before the police entered the restaurant.
Jain, who had just completed her first year at Cal, was interning at Eastern Bank Limited in Dhaka through an internship with UC Berkeley’s Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies. She had arrived in early June.
Jain’s father had a clothing manufacturing company in Bangladesh. The family was from India.
Related:
Cal student among those killed in Bangladesh terrorist attack (07.02.16)
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