Pakistani boy kills mother, three siblings ‘under the influence’ of PUBG

A 14-year-old boy in Lahore, Pakistan, shot dead his entire family, including his mother and two sisters, allegedly “under the influence” of online game PUBG, local police said on Friday.

The authorities detained the teenager, Zain Ali, for the murder of his mother, Naheed Mubarak (45); brother Taimur Sultan (20); and sisters Mahnoor Fatima (15) and Jannat (10). The four were found dead in a room of their multi-storey home a week ago.

A police officer told local media that Ali, a PubG fan who spent most of his time in his room playing the online game, had confessed to his crime.

“The PUBG addict boy confessed to have killed her mother and siblings under the influence of the game. He has developed some psychological issues because of spending long hours of the day playing the online game,” a police statement said.

The statement said Nahid often admonished the boy for not paying attention to his studies and spending most of his time playing PUBG.

“On the day of the incident, Nahid scolded the boy over the matter. Later, the boy took out her mother’s pistol from a cupboard and shot her and his three siblings dead in their sleep.

“Next morning, the boy raised an alarm and the neighbours called the police. The boy that time told police that he was on the upper storey of the house and did not know how his family was killed,” the statement said.

Nahid had acquired the licensed pistol for her family’s protection, the police said, adding that the weapon was yet to be recovered from a drain where the boy had dumped it.

According to a report, this is the fourth such crime related to PUBG in Lahore. When the first case surfaced in 2020, the police had recommended a ban on the game.

Three young players of the game have died by suicide in the last two years and the police in its reports declared PUBG as the reason behind the deaths, the report said.