A controlling husband who stabbed his wife to death as she pushed their baby in a pram after tracking her to a women’s refuge has been jailed for life, with a minimum of 28 years. Habibur Masum, 27, was found guilty of murdering Kulsuma Akter in a “ferocious” knife attack in broad daylight before leaving her bleeding to death and calmly walking away, leaving their seven-month-old son behind.
Mr Justice Cotter set the minimum jail term for Masum’s life sentence during a hearing at Bradford Crown Court on Tuesday, telling him: “You stole a precious young life in brutal fashion. You have shown now remorse only self pity.” Jurors at his trial heard Masum followed Ms Akter to a refuge in Bradford where she had been staying to escape him after he held a knife to her throat at their home in Greater Manchester.
After finding her through her phone location, Masum loitered in streets around the hostel and sent her messages threatening to kill her family members if she did not return to him, before trying to lure her out by sending her fake messages from a local GP practice pretending their son had an appointment.
The court heard Ms Akter eventually felt safe enough to leave the refuge on April 6 last year after Masum updated his Facebook page falsely claiming to be in Spain.
As she was walking in the city centre with a friend, pushing her baby in a pram, Masum confronted her, the trial heard.
CCTV footage of the attack captured Ms Akter’s screams as Masum stabbed her at least 25 times.
Jurors heard he then calmly walked through Bradford city centre and was seen on CCTV grinning as he got on a bus, believing at that point he was getting away.
Masum travelled almost 200 miles south to Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, and was arrested in the early hours of April 9 in a car park near Stoke Mandeville Hospital, where he had gone to be treated for “lockjaw”.
The trial heard the relationship between Masum and Ms Akter was “an abusive relationship characterised by his jealousy, possessiveness and controlling behaviour”.
The couple met and married in Bangladesh, and came to the UK in 2022 after he obtained a student visa and enrolled on a Masters course to study marketing.
They moved into a house in Oldham together in September 2022.
On November 23, 2023, he became jealous over a “completely innocuous” message Ms Akter received from a male colleague and held a knife to her throat.
He was arrested and Ms Akter decided to leave him, being moved to the Bradford refuge by Oldham social services in January 2024.
Ms Akter’s family said in a statement: “We will never forgive the monster who took Kulsuma from us”.
Speaking after the verdict, Marie Walsh of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Habibur Masum is a violent and dangerous man who subjected his estranged wife to violence and domestic abuse causing her to flee their home to live in a safehouse in Bradford.
“Unable to accept the relationship was over, he managed to track her down and then stabbed her multiple times.
“This was a callous and shocking murder for which Masum has now been jailed by the court.
“We hope the imprisonment of Masum has brought some comfort to the family and friends of Kulsuma.”