According to police, Zain Ali, the prime accused, had been playing PUBG for hours in his room, until he lost a level. Enraged, he says he 'lost his senses' and grabbed a pistol from his sleeping mother's bedroom.
With his family still sleeping, Ali allegedly shot and killed his mother, Naheed Mubarak, aged 45, and his two sisters, Mahnoor Fatima, 15, and Jannat, 10. Upon hearing the gunshots, his elder brother, Taimur Sultan, 20, entered the room; Ali shot him as well.
The bodies of the deceased were found in the bedroom of the family's house in LDA Chowk in Kahna, Lahore approximately one week ago. The mother, Naheed Mubarak, reportedly worked as a Lady Health Worker.
Although he initially denied committing the crime, police say they found blood spatter leading to the boy's room, as well as blood on the boy's clothes. The teenager has since confessed.
PUBG was briefly banned in Pakistan in July 2020, after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) found that the game was excessively violent and 'highly addictive. Bigo, the makers of the game, had promised at that time to 'moderate immoral and indecent content in accordance with Pakistani laws' once the ban had been lifted.