Mahek and Ansreen Bukhari, the TikTokers Who Killed
A forbidden affair led to what many are calling the honor killing of a British Pakistani man. Is it?
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.
Police body cams showed Mahek curled up on a chair in a fluffy pink onesie, completely unbothered and insisting to officers that she was a “very good driver.” Ansreen, in a fluffy white robe, appeared distressed.
Over a year later, on August 4, 2023, the Leicestershire Crown Court charged Mahek, her mother, and two accomplices with murder — namely, premeditated killing — and three other accomplices with manslaughter — 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.