Boy, 17, kills mum, brother and two sisters ‘after becoming addicted to video game’
A TEENAGE boy killed his mum, brother and two sisters after he is said to have become “addicted to a video game”.
Zain Ali, 17, from Lahore, Pakistan, was arrested after the bodies of his relatives were found by a maid.
Cops have claimed the youth suffered “psychological issues” as a result of playing an online game.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds involves players parachuting onto an island and scavenging for weapons to kill others while avoiding getting killed themselves.
According to police officers, after failing to accomplish a mission in the game, the boy went to get hold of his mother's pistol.
He then shot his mother Nahid Mubarak, 45, followed by his sister Mahnoor Fatima, 14, who came from another room after hearing the gunshot.
Later, he killed another sister Jannat, 10, and his older brother, Taimur, 22, all in their family home in the Kahna area of the city.
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The boy then reportedly left the house to throw the 30 bore calibre gun in a drain, before returning to pretend to be asleep.
Police arrested him after finding bloodstains on his clothes and blood trails leading to the upper storey of the building, where he had been sleeping.
They said he later confessed to killing his family in a fit of rage and he believed they would be alive again once his task was completed.
"His activities reveal that he was in severe depression," a doctor said.
A police statement read: "The PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) addict boy confessed to killing his mother and siblings under the influence of the game.
'PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES'
“He has developed some psychological issues because of spending long hours of the day playing the online game."
Police also said that before the killings, his mother had raised concerns with him about how much he was playing the game.
The statement added: "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 other siblings.
“Next morning, the boy raised an alarm and the neighbours called the police.
"The boy at that time told police that he was on the upper floor of the house and did not know how his family was killed."
Police official SSP investigations Imran Kishwar also said: "It was a sensational murder as we had started the investigation on the scientific bases.
"There was a number of theories we had to look at and rule out before we found the blood trails initiated within the house which raised suspicion.
"The boy had complained himself about the murder of his family members.
"During the interrogation of the boy, we found contradictions in his statements.
"The important question was why he had murdered his mother and siblings which led us to him being an addict to PUBG game. He used to be in an element of shock on losing a game which led to his isolation.
"He was considering the online game like a real game.
"It was a housemaid who had found the bodies lying before informing the police."
It is the fourth crime related to online games in the city since 2020, and three other people have died by suicide with video games reportedly playing a part in their deaths, leading to calls for a ban.
In October last year a monster dad burnt his two daughters and four grandchildren alive after one of them “married for love”.
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