Pakistan

Punjab IT Board takes down android game based on APS massacre following uproar

First-person shooting game titled ‘Pakistan Army Retribution’ was released around the anniversary of the brutal...

News Desk January 18, 2016

Following a barrage of criticism, the Punjab IT Board has taken down an android game based on the 2014 attack on the Peshawar Army Public School, conceding it was made in “poor taste”.

Punjab IT Board Chairman Umar Saif, in a tweet, confirmed that the game has been removed.

The APS game has been removed. It was in poor taste. Thank you for highlighting this mistake. We have made the amends.
— Umar Saif (@umarsaif) January 18, 2016

The Punjab IT Board released the first-person shooting game titled ‘Pakistan Army Retribution’ around the anniversary of the brutal attack, in which 146 people, mostly schoolchildren were killed.

A screenshot from pre-launch video of the game. PHOTO COURTESY: facebook.com/peacefulpakistanorg

The game re-enacts the events of December 16, 2014, with the player assuming the role of a soldier and leading his team into the school premises. The ultimate task for the player is to neutralise the terrorists.

Developers, however, seemed to have missed the mark in aiming to honour the army soldiers who participated in the operation, with many calling out the game for being insensitive and in poor taste.

Following the criticism, the IT Board took down the game on Monday evening from the Google Play Store. A message now appears saying the content is not available in your country yet.

For Peshawar

Some great premises for the Punjab IT Board to mine for games: Malala’s shooting, the sex abuse scandal in Kasur, Mukhtar Mai’s gang rape.
— fasih (@therealfasih) January 18, 2016

A video game of APS school attack? WTF is the Punjab IT Board smoking? Are they out of their freaking minds?
— S (@isaahrish) January 18, 2016

COMMENTS (5)

Hilmi | 8 years ago | Reply @Shuaib: Games can be a good recruiting and indoctrination tool. That's all I said.

Parvez | 8 years ago | Reply This is classic bureaucratic bumbling.....no thought, no tact, no discretion.

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Shuaib | 8 years ago | Reply @Hilmi: So if the States have terrible policies and are unempathetic does it mean we should follow that route? Of course in thise case we are killing TTP terrorists but re enacting APS is totally out of line. They could have done it based on somwthing completely different.

Hilmi | 8 years ago | Reply Sad they took down the game. The US army sponsored a game called America's army. It has been an excellent recruiting tool for them. They also recruit gamers as drone operators. We get bombed by people who learned their craft playing video games and yet here we are blocking similar content.

Usman | 8 years ago | Reply This is the IT progress that NS and SS are always touting about. How much resources where wasted on developing a useless game? Goes to show the mental level of people in power in our IT industry.

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