Suhail Aijaz left his hostel in AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, on February 9 after telling his friends he was going to attend a friend’s wedding in Chandigarh.

A second-year Kashmiri student of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar, has been missing since more than a fortnight, catching the eye of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB). His father, a schoolteacher, is camping in Odisha for a week, hoping for his return.

MBBS student Suhail Aijaz, 20, from J&K’s Kupwara district left his hostel in AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, on the afternoon of February 9 after telling his friends he was going to attend a friend’s wedding in Chandigarh, said police. He told them he would return by February 16, police added. Suhail, however, did not return and AIIMS officials intimated police on February 18.

AIIMS officials said NIA and IB officials have started investigations into Suhail’s mysterious disappearance. “We have given all information that the NIA and IB officials sought about him,” said Dr Prabhas Ranjan Mishra, vice-dean of the institute.

Dr Mishra said they also found a letter from Suhail’s room addressed to his father, Aijaz Ahmed, and friends that stated he was sorry for not measuring up to their expectations. “We have shared the letter with the authorities.” Bhubaneswar deputy commissioner of police Satyabrata Bhoi said Aijaz’s mobile number was last tracked to Kolkata. “The phone has been switched off since then,” said Bhoi.

Suhail’s father, a schoolteacher in Kupwara, landed in Bhubaneswar a week ago and is “devastated” by his son’s disappearance. “He was the most gifted among my six children. On February 9, he told his brother not to call him for the next three to four days as he would be giving his mobile phone for repair. He said he would call back as soon as his phone was repaired. When he did not call for about a week, we were worried, but found his phone switched off,” said Ahmed.

“Then I reached AIIMS Bhubaneswar and was told he left the hostel without telling his professors. Worried about him, I deposited Rs 5,000 in his SBI account as he did not have more than Rs 2,500 when he left,” said Ahmed.

“I don’t know why he disappeared like this. I feel cheated. I just hope he comes back safely,” said Ahmed, who has asked the police to scan the call records of his son for the last month. Police said Suhail’s ATM card had not been used after February 9.

Before leaving the hostel, Suhail had told one of his batchmates he had failed to get a train reservation.

“He said he would manage without a ticket,” the batchmate said on Saturday.

Suhail had failed in physiology and anatomy courses in the first year and wanted to repeat the course. However, he cleared both the papers in the supplementary examination, the results of which were declared last month. AIIMS registrar BB Mishra said, “He may not have been a brilliant student, but he was good. His results were nothing to be panicky about.”

Police are closely monitoring the case in the light of a Kashmiri student from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Mannan Wani, disappearing and reportedly ending up with militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen outfit in January.

A picture of Wani, 26, a geology research scholar at AMU, holding a grenade launcher went viral on social media. The text on the picture said Wani hailed from Lolab area of Kupwara district in north Kashmir, and his code was “Hamzah Bhai”.