Pakistani police called for the wildly popular PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) game to be banned after a teenager confessed to killing four members of his family in a rage after bingeing for days playing online.
Police said Ali Zain shot dead his mother, two sisters and a brother on January 18, and claimed under questioning at the weekend that the game had driven him to violence.
“This is not the first incident of its nature,” police investigator Imran Kishwar told reporters in the eastern city of Lahore, adding “so we have decided to recommend a ban”.
PUBG is an online multiplayer “battle royale” game in which the winner is the last survivor. Kishwar said Ali, 18, lived in complete isolation in his room and was addicted to the game.
Dawn newspaper quoted a Lahore police officer as saying Ali “fired at his family thinking that they will also come back to life, as happened in the game”.
Often likened to the blockbuster book and film series The Hunger Games, PUBG has become one of the world’s most popular mobile games.
Telecoms authorities in Pakistan have previously temporarily blocked access to the game after complaints about its violent content.
The game has been banned – briefly or permanently – in several other countries, including India and China.
- Reuters, with additional editing by George Russell
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