A teenager in Pakistan who gunned down his entire family after a bad session of the online game PUBG has been sentenced to 100 years in prison.
On Wednesday (24 Sept), a court in Lahore handed 17-year-old Zain Ali four life sentences — one for each murder — along with a fine of 4 million Indian rupees (S$18,400).
According to India Today, Ali had been just 14 years old when he killed his mother, brother, and two sisters in January 2022.
He was spared the death penalty because of his young age.
According to reports, Ali spent most of his time locked in his room playing PUBG.
On 19 Jan 2022, he became enraged after losing repeatedly in the game and being scolded by his mother for wasting his time.
Source: The Express Tribune
“Zain Ali lost his senses after he missed a target while playing the game for hours and also got a snub from his mother,” police told the court.
Police said he then retrieved his mother’s pistol and shot her while she was asleep, before turning the gun on his siblings.
“He shot dead his mother, 45, his elder brother Taimur, 20, and two sisters, Mahnoor, 15, and Jannat, 10.”
Ali later confessed, saying repeated defeats in the game had heightened his stress, and he believed his family would “come back to life like in the game”.
The gruesome murders sparked outrage at the time, with Punjab Police writing to the provincial government to demand a ban on PUBG, reports The Express Tribune.
“It is evident that obsessive indulgence of youth in online violent games like PUBG and Fortnite is introducing into young minds a sense of comfort with violence, leading to criminal tendencies,” police said in the letter.
Delivering the sentence this week, the judge said Ali had “brutally killed his entire family under the influence of an online game”.
Because of his age, however, he was sentenced to four concurrent life terms of 25 years each instead of capital punishment.
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Featured image adapted from The Express Tribune and PUBG.