Teenage gangsters jailed for murder of Afghan refugee

Two teenagers who fatally stabbed a 16-year-old Afghan refugee in the mistaken belief he was a member of a rival gang have been jailed for life. Vanushan Balakrishnan and Ilyas Suleiman, both 18, stabbed Rishmeet Singh 15 times after chasing him through a park in Southall, west London, on the evening of November 24 2021. Two years before, college student and aspiring police officer Rishmeet sought asylum in the UK with his mother and grandmother after his father was killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Balakrishnan and Suleiman, from Hillingdon, west London, were found guilty of murder following an Old Bailey trial in March. In a televised sentencing by at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, Judge Sarah Munro KC ordered the defendants be locked up for life. Suleiman was handed a minimum term of 21 years and Balakrishnan at least 24 years.