Pakistani man was arrested after he beat his teenage sister to death, smashing her skull with a large wooden stick, because he didn't want her to marry her boyfriend, CNN reports. Police said Anum Masih, 19, was murdered by her brother Saqib Masih, 21, on the evening of June 10.
"She wanted to marry, we didn't agree on this wedding. We were arguing," Saqib told CNN from a police cell in the city of Sialkot. She was my sister. I didn't mean to kill her. I've been crying ever since. She was my sister."
Yousuf Masih, the victim's father, said that he was against the match because the two families were related.
"They started arguing. He hit her with the stick, he has no intention to kill her, the father told CNN. Things just got out of hand, he reacted in anger. In the end I guess it did become an issue of honor."He added that he filed the police report against his own son.
Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's Prime Minister, has vowed to tackle the problem of honor killings, but critics say few concrete steps have been taken.
"There is no honor in honor killing, in fact there can be nothing more degrading than to engage in brutal murder and to refer to it as honor," he said in a press statement five months ago.
The mother Sajilia Masih, told CNN, she wasn't home when the murder took place. She has two other children, who weren't involved in the incident.
"He had no intention to kill her. I guess what happened, happened. I want my son to be released, he is my child after all." she said.
