Korede Omole, left, and Shankar Taramangalam set out flowers for their two fellow Emory University students killed in a Bangladesh militant attack Friday, Abinta Kabir and Faraaz Hossain, at Seney Hall at the Oxford College campus where they attended in Oxford, Georgia, Sunday, July 3, 2016. Kabir and Hossain were among the 20 hostages slain in a brutal attack on a restaurant in Bangladesh.ATLANTA - Friends remembered two Emory University students as campus leaders Thursday during a vigil on the Atlanta campus, days after they were killed in an attack on a restaurant in Bangladesh's capital by armed extremists that claimed more than 20 lives.
About 200 people filled the university's Cannon Chapel to pay tribute to Faraaz Hossain and Abinta Kabir, sharing stories of their friendships and prayers for healing.
Emory officials have said Kabir was entering Emory's Oxford College as a sophomore. She was visiting family and friends in Bangladesh at the time of Friday's attack. Hossain was a student at the university's Goizueta Business School in Atlanta and a graduate of Oxford College. The vacationing friends met up at the restaurant, joined by 18-year-old Tarishi Jain, an undergraduate at the University of California at Berkeley. Jain also died.
Both Hossain and Kabir held leadership roles on the Student Activities Committee at Oxford College, earning reputations as kind, sensitive and helpful while planning campus-wide events.
Chase Jackson, another student member of the committee, said in a statement read aloud Thursday that people in need of advice "would flock" to Kabir and her "loving personality." Hossain greeted everyone with a broad smile, and "his heart was bigger than anyone else's," Jackson wrote.
The ceremony included prayers led by representatives of various faiths, including Buddhist monks participating in the schools partnership with Tibet. Speakers urged those attending to resist anger or fear of people with different faiths or backgrounds and instead embrace them.
"To honor Faraaz and others, we must not be afraid in times like this," said Rifat Mursalin, a recent Emorygraduate who grew up in Dhaka. "Being afraid of others is surrendering, admitting defeat to evil."
The ceremony also honored the other 18 people who were held hostage during the attack, represented by white Gerbera daisies placed in vases by Emory students to the beat of drums. Administrators carrying yellow daisies for Hossain and Kabir completed the bouquets in silence. Two police officers and six attackers also died.
Salma Soliman, a sophomore at Oxford College who knew both students, read a poem by Hannah Senesh comparing the memory of people who have died to stars still visible from Earth - years after burning out.
"Abinta and Faraaz, you are my light," Soliman added emotionally. "I will strive to reach the level of patience, dedication and kindness you both possessed."