The first day of the trial into the death of Mr Mohammed Raja Shafiq went ahead at Manchester Crown Court where four people stand accused of his murder and of violent disorder.

It is alleged Mr Shafiq was stabbed in the stomach and beaten over the head with an iron bar during a confrontation in the park on March 4th. He died later that day in the Royal Blackburn Hospital after emergency surgery failed to save his life.

The trial, before Mr Justice Richard Henriques, is expected to last for four weeks and hear evidence from 20 witnesses.

Burnley College students Mohammed Bilal Bhatti (21), of Holcombe Drive, Omar Khalid (19), of Fairfield Drive, Mohammed Shahdab Akhtar (19), of Scott Park Road, and a 17-year-old youth who cannot be named for legal reasons, all deny charges of murder and violent disorder.

Manchester Crown Court heard that his four alleged attackers armed themselves with weapons including a 7in, knife, a metal bar, an improvised chain and a wheel bar in preparation for an organised fight in the park with Mr Shafiq's son Umar Shafiq, also a Burnley College student. None of the alleged weapons have been recovered.

Mrs Louise Blackwell QC (prosecuting) said Mohammed Akhtar was charged with assaulting Umar Shafiq following an incident the previous October and this had led to "tension and increasing hostility" between the pair.

She told the jury of eight women and four men Akhtar had "repeatedly pressurised" Umar Shafiq to drop the charges. He was also pressurised to drop the charges the day before the murder, and a good friend of Umar's was assaulted two weeks before the murder according to the barrister.

Mrs Blackwell told the court Akhtar was on bail for the assault of Umar Shafiq at the time of the murder. She added that Umar and a security guard at the college rang Mr Shafiq to alert him that a fight had been organised at the park, prompting the victim to go there to resolve the problem.

The trial continues.