"I will never forget what Masum did to Kulsuma."
A man who murdered his estranged wife in front of their baby son has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 28 years.
Kulsuma Akter was pushing her seven-month-old son in a pram through Bradford city centre when she was attacked and fatally stabbed by Habibur Masum. The killing took place in broad daylight in April 2024.
Masum was convicted of murder in June 2025 following a trial at Bradford Crown Court. He had previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter and possession of a bladed article.
Sentencing him at the same court, Mr Justice Cotter said Masum “viciously and mercilessly” stabbed Ms Akter 26 times.
The judge said: “You pulled out a knife from your pocket and attacked her in full view of passers-by.”
He told Masum that he had deliberately targeted her neck, stamped on her and then “cutting her throat”.
The judge added: “The wounds you had inflicted were unsurvivable, as was your intention.”
The court heard that Masum, originally from Bangladesh, will be assessed for deportation 36 months before the end of his minimum sentence. He had been in the UK on a graduate visa, which expired on June 20, after studying English literature at the University of Bedfordshire.
Stephen Wood KC, prosecuting, said there was a “high likelihood that this will be pursued” by the Home Office.
The court was told Ms Akter had been living at a refuge in Bradford since January, after Masum held a knife to her throat at their former home in Oldham.
In the days leading up to the murder, Masum was seen “loitering, watching and waiting” near the hostel.
Jurors were told he had sent threatening messages, including one in which he warned he would kill her family members if she did not return to him.
Masum also attempted to lure Ms Akter out by sending fake messages posing as a local GP practice.
On April 6, Ms Akter left the refuge to meet a friend, believing Masum was abroad in Spain. Instead, he tracked her through her phone’s location and confronted her in the city centre before stabbing her at least 25 times.
CCTV footage showed Masum calmly walking away after the attack. He fled to Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire and was later seen smiling as he boarded public transport.
Mr Wood said: “There were no tears, there was no distress.
“Perhaps, members of the jury, the smile you can clearly see from him as he gets on that bus is as a result of him thinking at that point he’s getting away: the smiling killer.”
Masum was arrested on April 9 in a car park near Stoke Mandeville Hospital, where he had gone to seek treatment for “lockjaw”.
He was also convicted of assault by beating, making a threat to kill, and stalking.
In a statement read out in court, Minara Begum, who is married to Ms Akter’s brother, said:
“I will never forget what Masum did to Kulsuma.
“When I am at home and in the kitchen cutting things with a knife, I cannot stop myself thinking that he stabbed her brutally with a knife in front of their baby.
“I ask myself how anyone could do that. So many questions come to mind that I will never get answered. It makes me very upset, frustrated and angry.”
A statement from Ms Akter’s older brother, Emran Hussain, was also read in court:
“She wanted to be, and she was for the short time she had, the best mother.
“Nothing can ever prepare you for the shock of learning that a family member has been murdered. I still cannot comprehend this has happened to my baby sister. I will never recover from it.”
“I can still experience the shock my body went through when I was told the news. I did not want to hear it, I did not want to believe it. I still don’t.”
A wider family statement issued after sentencing said:
“The monster who savagely took Kulsuma from not only us, but also from her baby son.”
“He will never know her beauty and her kindness. He will never know his mother, other than the memories we as a family will share with him as he grows.
“He is the only light in all this darkness and Kulsuma radiates throughout him.”
Marie Walsh, from 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.”
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