Google Play Store Removes Game Based on 2014 Terror Attack in Pakistan

The Google Play Store has removed a video game based on a 2014 terror attack that occurred in Pakistan after it received numerous amounts of criticisms online.

The game, "Pakistan Army Retribution," which is a first-person shooter (FPS) game, allowed players to take the role of a Pakistani solider, whose goal was to get rid of a group of insurgents.

The game's format, which included nine levels, very closely resembled the attack carried out by the Taliban on a military school in the Pakistani province of Peshawar back in December 2014. In that attack, 145 people, with 132 of them being young children, were killed. The game also opened with the Pakistani national anthem.

Since the game was removed on Monday, Umar Saif, the chairman of the Punjab Information Technology Board, which is a government agency that got the game developed, stated to CNN that the game was a part of a larger campaign to honor the anniversary of the attack. The government campaign aimed to unite Pakistan in "peace and harmony."

"APS was a watershed for Pakistan so we had the idea of using it as a theme to promote peace, tolerance and harmony," Saif explained reported by The Guardian. "The plan was to show children that the best weapons are the pen and the book."

Saif has since acknowledged that the company's decision to base it on the attack was made "in poor taste." Saif added they "have made the amends."

The APS game has been removed. It was in poor taste. Thank you for highlighting this mistake. We have made the amends.

— Umar Saif (@umarsaif) January 18, 2016

The game was made available to users for a while but the criticisms did not start until a review of the game surfaced on the one of the leading newspapers in Pakistan, Dawn. Due to the review, more people became aware of the content, which angered many.

The review itself was mainly about the game and how it "failed on every front."