HUNDREDS attended a funeral service for a former Brierfield teenager who was stabbed to death beside a river in Reading.

Asha Muneer’s parents Mohammad and Nasreen and three sisters led mourners in a service at the Berkshire town’s Rivermead Leisure Centre.

The former Mansfield High and Walter Street Primary School pupil, who grew up in Halifax Road, Brierfield, was later buried in a private ceremony.

Eighteen-year-old Asha, an A-level student, was a part-time shop assistant at a branch of Laura Ashley in Reading.

She was killed while walking home from work on January 18 and her body was found by a jogger on a path beside the River Kennet, close to the town’s football stadium.

A post-mortem examination showed she had suffered 25 stab wounds.

In a statement, Mr and Mrs Muneer said: “Our family has lost a loving, beautiful daughter and we are trying to come to terms with how she died and the void that it has left in our lives.”

While they lived in Brierfield, Mr Muneer worked at the former Smith and Nephew factory before becoming a taxi driver. The family attended the Stanley Street mosque.

Since moving, the whole family have maintained close contacts with Brierfield and Asha still had friends in the area.

The teenager had been studying for qualifications in English, sociology and econo-mics at Reading’s Highdown School. Tim Royle, Highdown’s headteacher, who attended the funeral, said: “Asha was a much-liked and very talented student who will be greatly missed by all her friends at Highdown and by the staff who knew her and taught her.”

l Asha’s former boyfriend, 19-year-old Gulamyr Akhter, has been charged with her murder and appeared before the courts in Berkshire.