Mahek And Ansreen Bukhari, The UK TikTokers Who Turned Murderers

A social media influencer and her mother have been jailed for the "cold-blooded" murder of two men who died when their car was rammed off the road.

The duo Mahek Bukhari and her mother, Ansreen Bukhari, were found guilty of murdering two men, Saqib Hussain and Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin, both 21, who tragically died in a fireball when their car was deliberately rammed off the road during a late-night chase near Leicester.

PA Media

On February 11, 2022, Leicestershire, U.K. police showed up at the Bukhari family's Stoke-on-Trent home to question TikTok star Mahek Bukhari, then 23, and her mother Ansreen, 46, for the murders of two 21-year-old men, Saqib Hussain and Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin, which had occurred hours earlier.

Over a year later, on August 4, 2023, the Leicestershire Crown Court charged Mahek, her mother, and two accomplices with murder ¡ª premeditated killing ¡ª and three other accomplices with manslaughter ¡ª killing without malice. Unlike a typical whodunit, where police have dead bodies but few clues about their killers, CCTV footage quickly confirmed the perpetrators. Instead, the real question was why the victims had to die. But first, here's what happened.

Here's what happened in February 2022

The crime unfolded when Ansreen Bukhari, who had been having an affair with Saqib Hussain for about three years, and the other defendants lured him to a car park in the early hours of February 11 last year. They confronted him over sexual photos and videos he was allegedly using to blackmail Ansreen.

Following the confrontation, Hussain and his friend drove away, but they were pursued at high speeds, reaching 100mph, by two cars carrying the defendants. The chase ended tragically when their car was rammed off the road, hitting a tree on the A46 dual carriageway near Leicester and exploding into flames.

PA Media

Why the murders?

One of the victims was Saqib, who met Ansreen online about three years before his death ¨C he was then 18 but lied and told her he was 27. The pair began a sexual relationship, meeting up in hotels in Birmingham and London, and he would frequently send gifts to the house where she lived with her husband, her son and Mahek.

In court, Ansreen claimed that she had tried to end the relationship multiple times but that Hussain would not accept her decision and threatened to expose their affair to her husband and son with intimate photos and videos.

The court was read an extract of dozens of messages Hussain sent to Ansreen before his death, in which he repeatedly threatened to come to her house and said things such as "you're pissing me off more and more by ignoring me", "I will do something you're gonna regret" and "I'm a crazy bastard".

Messages show Hussain demanded a sum of ?3,000 he claimed he had spent on Ansreen throughout their relationship.

LEICESTERSHIRE POLICE

Duo was caught in a web of lies

When she gave evidence at Leicester Crown Court, 46-year-old Ansreen Bukhari described how her daughter's fame on TikTok had completely transformed her life.

"When I got married I was like a housewife, but with this TikTok thing, I was going out more. It was like two different lives," she said. "It was more excitement. We were out and meeting people and stuff."

Born in Pakistan, she moved to the UK as a baby and had ambitions of becoming a flight attendant, but her parents prevented her from going to college.

Her daughter, Mahek, who has 128,000 followers on TikTok, where she publishes beauty and lifestyle content, told the court how she would take her mother along to events and parties she was invited to, saying: "She's like a sister to me, we're best friends, and I know I could only trust her for anything. That's the reason I would take her."

On the back of this new world of parties and popularity, Ansreen and her daughter ended up embroiled in a web of lies and ultimately part of a plot to murder two young men who were killed in a fireball when their car was driven off the road.

bukhari duo

How were they caught?

In the moments leading up to the crash, Hussain called 999 for help, reporting that he was being followed and threatened. The 999 call led to a murder investigation, as the collision had initially appeared to be just a tragic accident.

During the trial, it was revealed that the car carrying Hussain and Ijazuddin split in two and caught fire upon impact, resulting in their immediate deaths from multiple injuries. The collision was not captured on CCTV, but damage on the front of one of the defendants' cars was consistent with colliding with the rear of the victims' car.

Ansreen and Mahek both stuck to the story that the car had lost control, and they had been pursuing Hussain, hoping he would agree to sit down and talk to them.

LEICESTERSHIRE POLICE

But the group had clearly worked together after the crash to hide their involvement. When police came to the Bukhari family home to make arrests, Mahek told them she and her mother had driven to Nottingham, not Leicester.

The defendants will be sentenced on September 1st for their role in the callous and cold-blooded attack that claimed the lives of two innocent men.

For more on news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.