A man who brutally stabbed his estranged wife to death in broad daylight in Bradford city centre has been sentenced to life in jail.
Habibur Masum murdered Kulsuma Akter as she pushed her baby in his pram, on Saturday, April 6 last year.
Masum launched a "ferocious" knife attack on Akter before leaving her bleeding to death and calmly walking away, leaving their seven-month-old son behind.
Now, the Honourable Mr Justice Cotter sentenced him to life in prison with a minimum term of 28 years. Masum left the dock quietly at Bradford Crown Court after his sentencing.
Masum's student visa expired on June 20 this year, but he will have to serve the minimum term before the Home Office can deport him.
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|Habibur Masum has been jailed
Jurors heard the couple met and married in Bangladesh, and came to the UK in 2022 after he obtained a student visa and enrolled on a Master's 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 Akter received from a male colleague and held a knife to her throat.
He was arrested, and Akter decided to leave him, being moved to the Bradford refuge by Oldham social services in January 2024.
Jurors at his trial heard Masum followed 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.
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PA | Kulsuma Akter was stabbed to deathThe court heard 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, before stabbing her 25 times.
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".
Justice Cotter told the court: "I'm sure that you can be properly described as violent, self-centred, jealous, controlling and coercive with a firmly held view that your wife was not your equal.
"You stole a precious young life in a brutal and merciless fashion. It was your refusal of her to have a life free from your violence and controlling behaviour.
"You have shown no real remorse, only self-pity."
The family of Akter said in a statement: "We will never forgive the monster who took Kulsuma from us."
Akter 's brother, Imran Hussain, said: "I still cannot comprehend that this has happened to my baby sister.
"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.
"My parents still struggle with losing their daughter, their youngest daughter, their baby."