Police try to ease tension after asylum-seeker is stabbed to death in racially-motivated killing

Police appealed for calm among the ethnic minority communities of Sunderland yesterday as they began investigating the racially motivated murder of a 28-year-old Iranian asylum-seeker.

After a march on Sunderland police station by 50 asylum-seekers, the city's police commander, Superintendent Paul Weir, met community leaders in what he conceded was a mood of "anger and apprehension" over the murder of Tayman Bahmani, who was killed by a single stab wound to his chest on Wednesday afternoon.

The presence of ethnic faultlines in Sunderland has been graphically demonstrated by the British National Party's eagerness to exploit them in the past year. The far-right party has staged three rallies and fielded three local election candidates in the city.

Supt Weir said the murder had strengthened his resolve to "forge even greater links with ethnic communities". The Monitoring Group, a race relations advocacy group with links to the National Civil Rights movement, said Mr Bahmani had complained of racial abuse and demanded action to halt persistent attacks. Another protest march is planned for this morning.

Mr Bahmani was visiting friends in Sunderland's multi-ethnic Hendon district on Wednesday when he became involved in a stand-off between white and Iranian gangs in Peel Street. At 3.20pm, after a dispute lasting no more than 15 minutes, he was stabbed and, despite emergency surgery at Sunderland Royal Hospital, died soon after.

Detective Superintendent Steve Bolam, who is leading the investigation, emerged from interviews with the victim's Iranian friends yesterday to say he was convinced the attack was racially motivated.

It is not the first attack on an asylum-seeker in the city. An Iranian refugee had his face and back slashed after confronting two robbers in a city subway 18 months ago and swastikas have been sprayed on Asians' vehicles in the city in the past few months.

But an equally graphic demonstration of the daily reality of ethnic life in Sunderland was provided by Mike Musonza, a cheerful 29-year-old Zimbabwean asylum-seeker.

He said "The lads on Victoria Road call me kaffir (nigger)," he said with an air of casual resignation as he walked near the spot where Mr Bahmani was stabbed. "Funny that – it's an old-fashioned word. Not the sort of thing you expect to hear. But I've had it four times in two months. No, you don't go to the police when it happens – just get on with it, that's what I say."

His wife, Serviria, 36, had her own stories of verbal abuse – and the rotten eggs thrown at a young male friend of theirs a month ago. It's hardly what she expected when she left Harare for London in search of political asylum.

But it's not all bad, she said. Moving houses recently to a mildly more affluent district brought a sense of "brotherhood and sisterhood" with whites and Asians, she said.

That is generally how life seems to be for Sunderland's 280 asylum-seekers. Bearable and even decent at times, with the spectre of racism always there when the local, unemployed, disenchanted white boys are inclined to lash out.

The targets of mob rule actually transcend race, said a local Iranian resident, Moses. "You can't really call it racism," he claimed. "They do these things among themselves too, because they get depressed. They come out and knife each other – just ask the local hospitals on Saturday nights."

When the BNP is around, things change dramatically, said shopkeeper, Dhillon Jaspinder, 45, at the local Mombrays off-licence. "The white boys will sometimes be fine with me – then look what happened to me on Hitler's birthday. They were whipped up into mad things," he said.

When it comes to the crunch, there is not enough raw hatred to provide a BNP platform. The party lost its deposits in the last elections and five people showed up at the last rally, when 100 were expected.

Mr Bahmani, who is believed to have been single and unemployed, had more than his share of abuse. He would "dash" from the corner shop to his friends' house in Peel Street, according to Mr Jaspinder. One of his friends said Mr Bahmani had "many bad experiences." The friend, Bolbek, claimed Mr Bahmani expressed a desire to leave Sunderland altogether.

"He just came here for a safe life, not to be a victim of something," said Bolbek. "He left Iran because of persecution and fear of death and wanted to travel to a safe place – any safe place, it didn't matter where."