Two Held After Asian Man Killed in Town's Third Racial Murder

Detectives are questioning two white teenagers about a town's third racially-related murder in five months. Concern is growing in Bolton, Greater Manchester, that abuse and threats from rival groups of young people could begin to derail a level of community cohesion which was praised this month in an academic report.

Police are not directly linking the latest death, of a 28-year-old British Asian man, to the two previous killings since August. But there are fears of "tit for tat" and police are carrying out extra patrols to reassure local people. The victim, who had gone shopping on Friday night, was found dead behind a labor club in the Deane area of Bolton with head injuries.

He was named by Greater Manchester police yesterday as Asaf Mahmood Ahmed, who lived nearby and had gone to a local store at 9.30pm. Supt Andy Durkin said that the attack was being treated as racially-motivated because of "comments and language" heard by witnesses.

Two youths aged 18 and 15 were arrested later in the evening and Bolton magistrates yesterday gave police a further 36 hours to question them. Detectives are trying to work out why Ahmed had passed the shop without going in, with one possibility that he was lured to waste ground. Durkin said: "All the evidence points to these individuals acting alone and against the good-natured spirit in this community. I am heartened that tensions do not appear to be significantly raised." But a woman who contacted the Guardian said that all was "not going well", particularly after the two previous killings. A 21-year-old garage worker, Mahmud Maksoudian, who moved to Britain from Iran seven years ago, has been charged with the fatal stabbing in August of a 16-year-old schoolboy, Andy Holland, and causing grievous bodily harm to Curtis McAtee, also 16, by stabbing him in the back.

Two white teenagers, 18-year-old Jimmy Booth and a 15-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons, are facing trial for the murder of student Safar Khan, 19, on November 5. Khan was a cousin of 25-year-old Rabid Amin, 25, who was stabbed to death after a street row a year earlier. Durkin said: "I would like to reassure the local community that we are doing all we can to investigate the murder of Asaf Mahmood Ahmed."

Efforts to help different racial groups to mix in Deane were praised last week by the National Institute of Community Cohesion. But the group's chairman, Prof Ted Cantle, warned that more work needed to be done to tackle racism among young people, drug problems and a gang culture which was raising inter-ethnic tensions.