Murderer who stabbed wife to death is arrested in Aylesbury ahead of receiving life sentence

The Bucks Herald

West Yorkshire Police has released footage of a murderer being arrested in Aylesbury, days after he killed his estranged wife. Habibur Masum, now aged 27, was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 28 years at Bradford Crown Court on Tuesday.  Last month, Masum of Leamington Avenue, Burnley, was found guilty of stabbing his wife Kulsuma Akter to death in Bradford.

Transcript

00:00In April of last year, 27-year-old Kulsuma Akhtar was walking along here, Westgate in Bradford.

00:08At the time, she was pushing her seven-month-old son in his pram.

00:13Unfortunately, and despite several conditions imposed upon him,

00:18her estranged husband, Habiba Massam, had tracked her down and approached her.

00:23He grabbed the pram, and it was here where they have a short conversation, only a few moments,

00:28where we believe that he is trying to entice Kulsuma back into their relationship.

00:35And when she rejected that idea is when the unthinkable happened.

00:42Massam grabbed a knife from his jacket, and he repeatedly stabbed her

00:45in what can only be described as a sustained and horrific attack.

00:52Many people tried to help her, but unfortunately, she died from her injuries.

00:56Massam then calmly walked away as though nothing had happened.

01:00He walked through the streets of Bradford, and he caught a bus up to the Killinghall Road area of Bradford,

01:05where we believe he then used further public transport to facilitate his escape from Bradford.

01:12The next 24 hours in the investigation was crucial.

01:15There was a lot of hard work and a significant amount of CCTV trawling,

01:20which essentially enabled us to identify and then formally name Habiba Massam as the suspect in Kulsuma's murder.

01:29And a national manhunt was then set up by the Homicide and Major Inquiry Team within West Yorkshire.

01:34We're suspecting this investigation, who details have been widely circulated,

01:39and we are doing everything in our power to locate him.

01:43We've been overwhelmed with public support, and I would like to thank everyone who has so far assisted with our investigation.

01:51Over the next 72 hours, my team were able to track Massam, 175 miles south of Bradford to the Aylesbury area.

02:03Armed police officers were then able to effect his arrest in the early hours of Tuesday the 9th of April,

02:10and he was quickly brought back to West Yorkshire, where he was charged with murder and several other offences.

02:15More than 400 exhibits and 250 hours of CCTV and, of course, several other lines of inquiry were captured

02:24as a result of the investigation that was used to piece together the moments leading up to Kulsuma's death

02:32and the immediate aftermath, and that was subsequently used by the prosecution

02:37in order to successfully convict Massam of murder.

02:41Massam took Kulsuma away from her son in the most horrific way.

02:45And our thoughts remain with him and her family.

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