Police initially detained one person after recovering the body of Ishiat Shahriar Opratim, a 13-year-old son of a Comilla University professor, from a woodland on the Lalmai hills near the campus, 21 hours after he went missing.

Opratim was the only child of Dr Nahida Begum, an associate professor of Bangla at Comilla University and a fiction writer. He was found around 1 pm on Saturday in the jungle of a hill behind Magic Paradise Park, near the university’s south gate, with dark blood stains on his face and chest.

Officer-in-charge Md Rakibul Islam, along with associate professor Dr Kamrun Nahar Shila and assistant professor Nur Mohammed Raju, confirmed the recovery.

A suspect named Tuhin was initially detained, the Sadar South police station said.

Dr M M Shariful Karim, the university vice-chancellor, visited the scene and urged police to investigate swiftly and ensure exemplary punishment for those responsible. He also took the initiative to arrange a rapid post-mortem.

Manirul Haque Chowdhury, the MP for Comilla-6, also went to Kotbari upon hearing about the incident.

At the family home, Dr Nahida Begum wept as she asked what wrong her son had done and demanded an answer.

“I want to know what wrong my son did. Give me an answer. Is it my fault that I came to work in Cumilla?” she wept.

Opratim, a class seven student at Border Guard Public School, left his home in the Kotbari area around 3 pm on Friday with his mother’s iPhone to take pictures with friends and did not return. His father, Firoz Shahriar, filed a missing persons diary at the Sadar South model police station.

The victim’s mother said the phone’s number could not be traced to establish Apratim’s location and believed the handset might not have been with him.

From Friday night until Saturday noon, Comilla University teachers, students, officials, staff and alumni, along with journalists, people from various parts of the country, including Jahangirnagar University, publishing houses and many others, appealed on social media for information on his whereabouts.