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APS attack video game removed after uproar

ISLAMABAD: A video game based on the Peshawar Taliban school massacre in December 2014 has been withdrawn Monday after triggering social media uproar, with critics blasting it as tasteless.

The game named “Pakistan Army Retribution” was released by the digital agency in the central province and Punjab IT board on Google Play.

Players could act as soldiers shooting the attackers in the school. The agency later admitted it was “in poor taste”.

More than 150 people, mostly pupils, were killed in the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar.

However, it became a focus of public attention after Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reviewed the game, declaring that it “failed on every front”.

APS Game 2 copy

Many online users joined in the criticism, saying the video was exploiting the tragedy.

They described the game as “distasteful” and “insensitive”.

The release of the game is one of an assortment of actions in a campaign named Peaceful Pakistan, offering televised and online content to commemorate the Army Public School shootings and encourage opposition to violence.

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M M Alam

M. M. Alam is a Pakistan-based working journalist since 1981. Karachi University faculty gold medalist Alam began his career four decades ago by writing for Dawn, Pakistan’s highest circulating English daily. He has worked for region’s leading publications, global aviation periodicals including Rotors (of USA) and vetted New York Times as permanent employee of daily Express Tribune. Alam regularly covers international aviation and defense-related events including Salon Du Bourget (France), Farnborough (United Kingdom), Dubai (UAE). Alam has reported thousands of events and interviewed hundreds of people in Pakistan, UAE, EU, UK and USA. Being Francophone Alam also coordinates with a number of French publications.