Family feud killer will serve 21 years

A killer who jumped out of his car to stab a member of a rival family to death has been jailed for life.

Mohammed Abraheen Sikander, 24, knifed Raza Gulzar, 29, after a dramatic car chase through north London.

A passing ambulance took Mr Gulzar to St Mary’s hospital in Paddington, but the married father of two died two days later on 19 June 2021.

The Old Bailey heard Sikander’s uncle Shazan Sikander had attacked Gulzar’s brother Kashif believing he he was responsible for a threatening note that had been posted through his letter box.

Shazan, with two other relatives, took Kashif’s keys drove off in his Range Rover.

They were joined by more family members who followed the Range Rover from Walthamstone to Whetstone.

Sikander, who had been tailing the cars in a blue Lexus, believed his uncle was being attacked and stabbed Mr Gulzar to death when he was standing at the back of the Range Rover, posing threat to him.

After the killing he torched the Lexus and fled to Blackburn where he tried to get a visa to leave the country.

He was unanimously convicted by the jury of murder in November 2022

Mr Gulzar’s family wept in court as Judge Alexia Durran passed a life sentence on Sikander with a minimum term of 21 years.

Judge Durran told Sikander: ‘This was a violent, hot-headed but spontaneous response to someone in your way but posing no immediate threat to you.’

‘This is a sad and possibly tragic case as a result of mistaken identity when Kashif Gulzar was attacked.

‘Violence was used against your family and in turn, you retaliated.

‘He died as a consequence of your actions, this was a view, as acknowledged, a death that should never have happened.’

In a letter read by his barrister Stephen Kamlish, Sikander said: ‘I remain tortured in knowing that this was a tragic outcome.

I have not slept properly since that day and I am not sure that I will again.’

‘As I reflect on what happened, I wish I had just stayed at home caring for my mum that evening,’ he added.

I had plans and hoped for my future but all of that is now destroyed.’

In an impact statement the victim’s family said: ‘It doesn’t matter if he gets ten life sentences, we wake up each morning and are all doing one each.

‘Every day is a living nightmare and will be for the rest of our lives.’

They said of the victim’s mother: ‘There has not been a single night since he died that we haven’t found her standing on the street in the middle of the night crying.’

Sikander of Dale Grove, north Finchley, denied murder and possession of a bladed article but was convicted by the jury.