Published : 20 Sep 2026, 05:44 PM
Updated : 20 Sep 2026, 05:44 PM
Prime suspect Saiful Islam Tuhin was the first to strike Cumilla schoolboy Ishayat Shahriar Apratim on the head with the intention of killing him in order to snatch the iPhone he was carrying, police say.
Two other teenagers arrested in the case subsequently joined in the attack, law enforces said.
Police Superintendent Md Anisuzzaman shared the information around 2:15pm on Sunday at the District Police Superintendent’s office.
Police had earlier said that four people were detained on suspicion of involvement in the murder of 13-year-old Apratim, the son of Nahida Begum, an associate professor in the Department of Bengali at Comilla University.
An iPhone belonging to Apratim was also recovered from those detained.
On Friday afternoon, Apratim went missing from the Kotbari area of Cumilla while taking photographs with his mother’s iPhone. When he did not return home by night, his father KM Firoz Shahriar filed a missing person’s report at Sadar South Model Police Station.
The following day, Saturday afternoon, police recovered his body from a bush on Lalmai Hill in Sananda village, near Comilla University.
Apratim was a seventh-grade student at Border Guard Public School in the Kotbari area of Cumilla.
Police said Saiful Islam Tuhin, 19, was initially detained after CCTV footage was examined in connection with the incident.
He had been a Class 11 student at Cumilla City College but dropped out after failing an examination in 2025.
Based on information obtained during Tuhin’s interrogation, police detained two more teenagers, both aged 15. They are ninth-grade students at Mainamati Technical School and College.
Police also said they had taken Md Siam, 19, a Class 12 student at Abdal Khan Degree College, into custody for questioning.
On Saturday night, Apratim’s father Firoz filed a murder case with Sadar South Police against unidentified persons.
At a press conference, Superintendent of Police Md Anisuzzaman said Tuhin and the two teenagers had been shown arrested in the case.
Describing how the suspects killed Apratim by striking him on the head, the police superintendent said: “There was an unusual friendship among them. In other words, Apratim was in Class 7, but his friends were not among his classmates. They were older than him and were unruly youths.”
He said, “We have solved the main mystery behind the incident. We have arrested the main accused. And the iPhone, which was the motive for the murder, has also been recovered from the home of accused Tuhin based on information given by him.”
Describing the circumstances of the killing, the police superintendent said: “On the day of the incident (Friday), between 5pm and 6pm, the three of them tried to snatch Apratim’s iPhone in an isolated forested area surrounded by hills at a place called Shalban. Apratim resisted. At one point, a scuffle broke out between them.
“First Tuhin, and subsequently the two teenagers accompanying him, repeatedly struck Apratim on the head with hard bamboo sticks. At one point, the three ensured that Apratim was dead. Tuhin then took Apratim’s iPhone and fled the scene with the two other teenagers.”
Regarding the detention of another college student named Siam, Anisuzzaman said: “We are verifying and examining the information we have received against him. We are investigating with utmost importance whether there were other aspects to the incident and whether anyone else was involved.”
The police superintendent said that a police report would be submitted to the court soon after the mystery surrounding the murder was fully solved and the people involved are identified.
