Stab suspect was already on bail over threats to kill young mother
THE man suspected of the shocking daylight murder of a mother pushing her baby in a pram was on bail accused of threatening to kill her, it emerged last night.
Senior police officers warned the public not to approach 25-year-old Habibur Masum but instead to ‘call 999 immediately’ as they launched a massive manhunt after Kulsuma Akter was brutally stabbed during a Saturday afternoon shopping trip.
As it emerged that Bangladeshi student Masum is an aspiring influencer who has shared videos of his life in the UK with his 14 YouTube subscribers, it can be revealed that he was awaiting trial on charges of assault and threats to kill against the 27-year-old.
However a court released him on bail on the condition that he did not contact Ms Akter, who police have said was known to the suspect and is understood to have been living in hiding from him. Police last night released CCTV showing a grinning Masum boarding a bus nine minutes after the attack in Bradford city centre.
Officers hunting for Masum have raided properties in Oldham and Burnley where he is believed to have lived. A 23year- old man was yesterday arrested in Cheshire on suspicion of assisting an offender.
Meanwhile both West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester police forces have referred themselves to the Independent Office for Police Conduct over their prior contact with both Ms Akter and Masum.
He was given bail at Tameside Magistrates Court last November over the alleged assault and threats after pleading not guilty to both ahead of a trial scheduled for September.
Masum is originally from the city of Sylhet in Bangladesh. He is married and had been studying for a masters in digital marketing at the University of Bedfordshire, according to his Facebook profile.
He shares video blogs of his ‘ adventures’ on YouTube, including a recent flight to Barcelona. Days before the attack, Masum posted a photo online of him with a woman and baby beneath a sign that reads ‘love’. Hearts have been pasted over her face and that of the infant, who Masum is holding. The caption reads ‘family’.
On September 26 last year he posted a photo holding a newborn baby in a hospital, with the caption: ‘I have become the father of a Son.’
According to his Facebook profile he married in September 2022 and was studying between 2021 and 2023.
Ms Akter was pushing her baby son in a pram shortly before 3.20pm on Saturday when she was attacked and stabbed multiple times.
Horrific CCTV footage shows the knifeman repeatedly plunging his weapon into her neck. A witness said Ms Akter was speaking to her attacker ‘for about five minutes’ before he suddenly began stabbing her. A local shop owner then desperately tried to resuscitate her.
Paramedics and a passing doctor tried to save her, but she was later pronounced dead.
Police believe Masum is still in the country. Yesterday Damien Miller of West Yorkshire Police said officers were doing ‘everything in our power’ to locate the suspect, urging the public: ‘Do not approach him.’
Ms Akter’s baby is ‘safe and well and was not harmed’, Mr Miller added. A friend of Masum said he was ‘ completely shocked’, adding: ‘He’s a nice and good person’.
‘I have become the father of a son’