On January 14, 2020, 13-year-old Hassan Abbas, a resident of Pind Arrayan in Raiwind city, was murdered in cold blood, a day after he was abducted and sodomised by a person he had befriended over a game of the infamous PUBG (Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds). Another two children in the area, reported to have been ‘trapped’ via the game by the suspects, were also reported as missing. Later, the victim’s body was recovered from Mananwala, Sheikhupura.

The incident sparked public outrage as scores of residents of Raiwind, together with members of the deceased’s family, took to the street to record their anguish and dismay. They also chanted slogans against the police for having failed to respond promptly.

Ghulam Hussain, the victim’s uncle, tells TNS that his teenaged nephew went to a shop in the area, on January 13, saying he would be back shortly, but never returned. The worried family went on a frantic search for the missing boy. They started inquiring about him from his friends as well as the neighbours; in vain. “It came to our knowledge that another two local boys had also gone missing. Apparently, the kidnappers, who were three or four in numbers, had tracked them through the PUBG,” says Hussain, adding that the victim’s family headed next to the nearby Jia Bagga police post, to get a complaint registered. They provided the police with the names of two suspects who had been in contact with the victim online.

“We realised that the police were least bothered. We tried then to get through to senior [police] officials of the division, but nothing came of it.”

Saddar Division, Investigation SP Essa Sukhera tells a different story. “One of the kidnappers, namely Attaullah, shot down the boy for fear of being caught by the police,” he says.

According to him, Attaullah has stated that the police had shown up quickly at his aunt’s house in Sheikhupura, where he had kept the victim after abducting him from Lahore. Sukhera says upon seeing the cops, a frightened Attaullah locked himself in a room along with the victim.

Sukhera says that the police exercised restraint and tried to engage Attaullah to surrender, but the latter panicked. He “appeared to be a psychopath” (Sukhera’s words). “When he realised that the place had been surrounded from all sides, Attaullah fired a shot at the victim and injured him. He also considered shooting himself but didn’t find the courage to do so.

PUBG is a hugely popular — not to mention, addictive — online game in which the players (or partners) parachute onto a battlefield, armed with weapons. The one who lasts wins the game. The game is believed to have obsessed many youths in different parts of the world, so much so that a couple of them committed suicide because their elders had barred them from playing it.

“After the police had got hold of the accused, they took the victim to a nearby hospital. But it was too late by then. Hassan Abbas had succumbed to excessive bleeding.”

The SP says that the accused had recently returned from Bahrain and got in touch with the victim via PUBG. “Abbas’s family had prior knowledge of the two being in contact. Abbas had also borrowed Rs 11,000 from Ataullah before the latter [allegedly] sodomised him months before the abduction and murder.

“Later, Abbas cut off relations with Ataullah which frustrated the latter to the point that he plotted to kidnap him with help from his two accomplices, Musawwir Iqbal and Naveed Asghar, from the same locality. Consequently, all three of them drove down to Raiwind to meet Abbas. When they didn’t find him, they approached Wasim, a local, and another couple of boys, and asked them about Abbas.

“They didn’t succeed in establishing contact with Abbas at that time and were compelled to go back. Along the way, they picked three boys from around town. After committing sodomy with all of them, they let them go and again started looking for Abbas, this time at gunpoint,” says the SP.

When they had got hold of Abbas, a heated argument ensued among the culprits. “As a result, his accomplices left Attaulah midway. They had advised him to leave the child go but he refused to listen to them and took him to his aunt’s place [in Sheikhupura]. His aunt got suspicious and called the police.”

Sukhera claims that the police “acted promptly and swiftly.”

Here, the game too is a cause for concern. PUBG is a hugely popular — not to mention, addictive — online game in which the players (or partners) parachute onto a battlefield, armed with weapons. The one who lasts wins the game. The game is believed to have obsessed many youths in different parts of the world, so much so that a couple of them committed suicide after their elders had barred them from playing it.

The game is said to prompt toxic behaviour. Besides, it is used by criminal elements for ulterior motives.

Dr Ejaz Warraich, a senior psychiatrist at Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, says that children require parental supervision in their early years. “At the same time, it’s a fact that online games are now part of every other young kid’s experience. Many of these [online games] are not appropriate for the development of a balanced personality.

“The parents must never let their children establish contact with strangers through such games or on social media, for that matter,” he tells TNS.

The writer is a senior journalist and can be reached at ahsanzia155@gmail.com