Pakistan Army Retribution, an Android game based on the 2014 killings of over 130 school children at a Peshawar school by the Taliban has been removed from Google Play. Users were put in the boots of a soldier trying to “rescue the civilians and eliminate the terrorist.”
As per the game’s description that’s still visible on certain third-party app stores, players would “play as the leading role in the armed forces of Pakistan and fight for your nation’s pride in this first person shooter. Use sniper and machine gun to eliminate the terrorist forces.”
Despite the jingoistic description, the game was panned by Dawn, one of Pakistan’s biggest newspapers, for “failing on all fronts.”
“As much as some would argue the desire to tackle an attacker, visiting the school in this virtual manner is in poor taste,” the publication’s review reads. “The Peshawar attack was a tragedy that holds national significance since it sent the entire nation into trauma. Any recreation of the carnage that day seems insensitive.”
And Dawn wasn’t alone. Several commenters echoed similar sentiments, calling for its removal.
“No one, not even the common people of Pakistan wants to relive those moments let alone their families. The game should be banned,” wrote a reader online.
According to The Guardian, Umar Saif, chairman of the Punjab Information Technology Board, said the game was immediately pulled from the Google Play store after he became aware of it on Monday.
“It wasn’t very well done and it was in poor taste,” he said. “In hindsight it was not a good thing to do.”
[“source-gadgets.ndtv”]