Afghan boy murdered ‘in cold blood’ on London street, court finds

A 16-year-old Afghan boy was murdered on a London street after being mistaken for someone else and stabbed 15 times by a pair of teenagers, The Independent reported.

Rishmeet Singh, who was killed in late November 2021, had moved to Britain two years earlier with his mother and grandmother to claim asylum after his father was killed by the Taliban.

The 16-year-old was murdered by Vanushan Balakrishnan and Ilyas Suleiman, both 17 at the time, after the pair chased him down and stabbed him while he “lay defenseless on the floor,” the Old Bailey found on Monday.

Singh had left his friends in west London after an evening socializing, but saw the two teenagers running toward him.

He tried to return to his friends, shouting “run, run,” but tripped and was stabbed in the back by one of the males at least five times.

The second male then caught up to Singh, stabbing him at least 10 times. The two teenagers left the scene of the attack, which lasted just 27 seconds, the court heard.

Police and ambulance workers were unable to save the 16-year-old, who died at the scene.

Investigators later found an image on Balakrishnan’s phone of a bloody knife, captured on the evening of the attack.

Balakrishnan and Suleiman were identified using CCTV footage and will be sentenced on April 28 at the Old Bailey.

Singh’s mother, Gulinder, said in a statement: “Rishmeet was my only child, and he had his whole life ahead of him. No words could ever explain or put into context how I have felt since Rishmeet was taken from us.

“He has been raised with so much love and now he’s gone. I am struggling to understand as to how and why this happened to my baby boy. I feel I have lost everything and my life is over.

“I will never get over losing him in this way. I will not see him grow up into a young man. I will not see him leave college. I will not see him fulfill his aspirations. I will not see him learn to drive. I will not see him fall in love and get married. I will not become a grandmother and see my son grow old. I have been robbed of so many future events.

“Rishmeet was attending college completing a public service course and his ambition was to become a police officer, all he wanted to do was to help people. Rishmeet was well loved by all that knew him, he was a faithful boy and was very caring in his nature.

“I have lost my husband and now I have lost my only child, my son. Justice is finally served for Rishmeet, but their sentence will never be enough for me. They have taken my whole life away from me and Rishmeet will never come home again.”

Metropolitan Police Detective Inspector Laura Semple said: “Rishmeet was an innocent, young 16-year-old who had his whole life ahead of him. He had just spent an enjoyable evening with his friends and was making the short walk home when he was callously chased down and knifed to death by Balakrishnan and Suleiman.

“Between them, they stabbed him 15 times while he was defenseless on the floor. There is never an excuse to murder someone in cold blood, but this case is made even more tragic by the fact that Rishmeet was wrongly targeted by his attackers.

“Balakrishnan and Suleiman left the flat that day with the intention of ending someone’s life. Poor Rishmeet was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.”