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The Guardian

A gory video game set inside the Pakistani school where more than 130 children were massacred by Taliban gunmen has been withdrawn just weeks after it was released as part of an army-backed campaign to promote peace and tolerance in the country.
Players of Pakistan Army Retribution take the role of a soldier attempting to “protect precious lives from terrorists” who attacked the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar in December 2014.

There are various levels in the game, which features a rousing rendition of the national anthem, depicts events from the day of the attack and is branded with the logos of the Pakistani army and Punjab Information Technology Board.
READ MORE: Peshawar families carry deep scars one year after Taliban attack on school killed 134 students
The organisations jointly commissioned the game as part of a campaign to mark the one-year anniversary of the school killings.
Although it had been available to users of Android mobile devices for some time it only attracted public attention on Monday when Dawn, one of the country’s leading newspapers, ran a review on its website that declared the game “failed on every front”.

Online readers were as unimpressed as the reviewer, with many lambasting it as disrespectful to the dead. “Making a game out of the nation’s most gruesome tragedy is adding salt to the injuries not only of the families of the martyred children, but the entire nation,” one commenter wrote.
The attack by seven Pakistani Taliban gunmen on schoolchildren, supposedly to avenge army operations against militant sanctuaries, profoundly shocked a country where terrorism had become almost routine.
The incident has been credited with pushing Pakistan into a long-delayed confrontation with domestic militant groups .

Umar Saif, the chairman of the Punjab Information Technology Board, said the game was immediately pulled from the Google Play store after he became aware of it on Monday.
“It wasn’t very well done and it was in poor taste,” he said. “In hindsight it was not a good thing to do.”
Saif said Pakistan Army Retribution was just one of dozens of videos, jingles and social media items commissioned as part of a Peaceful Pakistan campaign intended to build on national revulsion over the APS attack.
READ MORE: Taliban kill at least 141 in attack at school in Peshawar, Pakistan
“APS was a watershed for Pakistan so we had the idea of using it as a theme to promote peace, tolerance and harmony,” he said. “The plan was to show children that the best weapons are the pen and the book.”
The game was produced by an independent company that had “misunderstood the brief”, Saif said.
“We tried to the use the campaign to galvanise support for peaceful Pakistan but I guess we messed up with this particular game.”


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Video game based on Taliban massacre at Pakistan school is withdrawn

No Caption Available.

epa04531089 Pakistani security forces take positions following an attack at the Army run school, in Peshawar Pakistan, 16 December 2014. Pakistani commandos are fighting Taliban militants who have killed at least 126 people and taken hundreds of students and teachers hostage at a military-run school, officials said. 'The operation is under way' in the north-western city of Peshawar, said Pervaiz Khattak, chief minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. 'Intense gun fighting is taking place inside the school.' EPA/BILAWAL ARBAB

epa04530857 A school boy who was injured in a Taliban attack receives medical treatment at a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, 16 December 2014. Pakistani commandos are fighting Taliban militants who have killed at least 23 people and taken hundreds of students and teachers hostage at a military-run school, officials said. 'The operation is under way' in the north-western city of Peshawar, said Pervaiz Khattak, chief minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. 'Intense gun fighting is taking place inside the school.' The area was cordoned off and helicopters were flying overhead. Those killed included 19 teenage students, Khattak said. The death toll may go up as militants have shot many other students in an auditorium at a school, a military statement said. EPA/ARSHAD ARBAB

A video game app where players take on the role of Pakistan’s security forces and battle militants in a school, has been withdrawn. Photo: Google Play Store

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Video game based on Taliban massacre at Pakistan school is withdrawn

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