Jammu & Kashmir

Siblings on the run over PUBG game apprehended by police in Ramban

Representational Image

The brother and sister ran away from home after being scolded by their parents 

Srinagar: Ever since Player Unknown’s Battle Grounds (PUBG), an online multiplayer game, began gaining popularity in Kashmir, it has been something of a controversial topic.

By now, the game, developed and published by PUBG Corporation, a subsidiary of South Korean video game company Bluehole, has become a cause of several deaths and other incidents causing frustrations among the users, mostly teenagers.

In a recent incident, two siblings, a brother and sister, who were on the run from their house in Keller in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, were traced by police in Ramban district.

The duo had left home after being scolded by the family members for spending most of their time on the Smartphone playing the game.

As per the police, the detained duo is expected to go home today.

The announcement of the detention was made by Senior Superintendent of Police Ramban, Haseeb-ur-Rehman, on his twitter handle.

“#PUB G WARRIORS ON RUN# Ramban police has apprehended two siblings ,a brother and a sister r/o killer Pulwama who had run away from their home after their parents had scolded them for wasting their time on #pub G# shall be handed over to their parents tomorrow!,” Rehman tweeted.

Earlier on July 20, a 13-year-old boy in Qasbayar village of the same district died by suicide after his younger brother did not let him play the game on a mobile phone.

The incident happened in Dangerpora Mohalla of Qasbayar village when the duo was playing inside their home and fought with each other.

Another incident was reported 0n July 27, when a 19-year-old youth died while playing the game in Srinagar.

Reports quoting police sources said that the incident took place when Asim Bashir of Kanipora area had gone to his friend’s house in Chanapora outskirts of Srinagar city.

“The family of Asim’s friend was waiting for him in the morning for breakfast, but he had reportedly fallen unconscious while playing the game during the intervening night of July 25 and 26.

“He was taken to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival,” the report quoted a source as having said.

In this regard, Police later registered a case and further investigations were also taken up.

Amid the instructions by experts that these type of games can be addictive and can severely affect the cognitive ability of a person, more and more cases of such incidents are being reported all over the country.

Early this month, a report claimed that a 17-year-old boy died by suicide in Jind, Haryana. The boy killed himself for not being allowed to play PUBG Mobile.

Nepal, China, Iraq and Jordan have already banned PUBG citing negative effects. The game was also briefly banned by the states of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu in India.

There have also been an increased call to ban PUBG Mobile in the classroom and in schools. Tamil Nadu’s Vellore Institute of Technology was the first to issue a ban in the university campus.

The creators of PUBG Mobile recently confirmed that it has 50 million daily active users.

The online game has also surpassed 400 million downloads since its debut on mobile platforms. The number of reports citing death due to PUBG Mobile has only increased in recent times.

Another incident was report in Punjab state of India, where a 17-year-old boy spent an amount of rupees 16 lakh on the game to make in-app purchases.

The Khrar based teenager spent the money from his parents’ account to buy artillery, passes for tournaments and virtual ammunition, to master the game in a month.

The boy had used all the money that his parents had set aside as savings for medical expenses of his father.

The parents were unaware of the situation as the boy told his parents that he was using the smartphone for studying online during the lockdown.

There was a report back in May where a 16-year-old died after a 6-hour session of PUBG Mobile. The game itself has introduced new digital wellbeing-style features inside the app. It has started reminding gamers to take a break between long sessions of gameplay.

 

Free Press Kashmir is now on Telegram. Click here to Join.

Click to comment
To Top