Behind the planning and execution of the murder of 13-year-old schoolboy Ishayat Shahriar Apratim, there was not only the greed to snatch an iPhone, but also resentment over a 5,000 taka loan and an ‘unbalanced friendship’ with older youths.
Apratim, a seventh-grade student at Comilla Border Guard Public School, left home last Friday around 2:30 PM carrying his mother’s iPhone 17 Pro Max. Investigating officers stated that on the day of the incident, the accused, Saiful Islam alias Tuhin, sent repeated messages to Apratim’s phone and lured him out of his house with the promise of taking photos and making TikTok videos using the expensive phone. CCTV footage shows Tuhin and Apratim walking side-by-side toward the hills around 3:10 PM, with two other teenagers following close behind. They took Apratim to a secluded forest about 1.5 kilometers inside the Sananda area of the Lalmai Hills, away from the main road.
Between 5:00 PM and 6:00 PM, when they attempted to snatch the iPhone from Apratim in the isolated forest, he fiercely resisted. During the scuffle, Tuhin first struck Apratim forcefully on the head with a bamboo stick, and subsequently, the other teenagers present also hit him. Apratim died on the spot from severe head injuries, after which they fled with the phone. During another phase of the investigation, police learned that a 15-year-old arrested teenager, who worked at Apratim’s father K.M. Firoz Shahriar’s mobile shop ‘Yestech’, had borrowed 5,000 taka from Apratim. When Apratim recently asked for the money back, the teenager became angry at him and joined the murder plot thinking that if Apratim was dead, he would not have to repay the money.
The morning after the incident, around 9:00 AM on Saturday, police took Tuhin into custody and began questioning him. Although he initially denied involvement, Tuhin confessed to his role in the murder at around 8:00 PM after an extended interrogation. However, he claimed he was ‘bound by an oath’ not to reveal the names of the others. During the interrogation, as repeated calls from the shop assistant teenager came to Tuhin’s phone, police detained him as well. At the time of his detention, that teenager was wearing a T-shirt bearing the name of Apratim’s father’s business. Following his detention, police took another teenager into custody based on information provided by Tuhin. Police later recovered Apratim’s iPhone hidden under a mattress at Tuhin’s house.
Following the incident, Apratim’s father filed a murder case, and police arrested a total of three individuals, including two juveniles. Despite age and social differences between Apratim and the accused, evidence was found showing them taking photos together, socializing, and making TikTok videos—a dynamic investigators referred to as an ‘unbalanced friendship’. Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmad and Comilla District Superintendent of Police Md. Anisuzzaman stated that they are investigating whether a juvenile crime ring or gang is involved in the incident. Meanwhile, the recovery of Apratim’s bloody body from the Lalmai Hills forest sparked widespread grief and anger on social media and across the nation. The mother’s heartbreaking question, “You could have just taken the iPhone, why did you kill my son?” and the father’s tearful plea, “May no one else lose a child like I did,” deeply pained the public. Following funeral prayers on Sunday at the Comilla University central ground and Eidgah field, Apratim was laid to rest in a local graveyard.
