Over 100 people have been arrested in Bangladesh after the police raided a PUBG Mobile LAN (Local Area Network) event that was organised and advertised even though the game is banned in the country.
Ogro News reported that the majority of the arrested persons were students believed to have competed in the tournament or had a hand in its creation. So far 24 individuals have been sentenced to two days in prison, while the remaining 78 are awaiting age verification before sentence can be passed.
Anyone among the 78 that is verified to be above the age of 18 or older will also get a 2 days prison sentence.
Bangladesh banned PUBG Mobile and Free Fire in August 2021 after the country’s courts cited how “addictive” the games were as a justification for the ban.
It didn’t take long for the Bangladesh High Court to issue the ban after receiving a petition from the Supreme Court lawyers, who cited that old anti-video game tropes of games caused teenagers to become more violent and immoral.
Free the PUBG 100
Although the initial PUBG ban was for three months, it seems to have been extended indefinitely. Other Middle East and South Asian countries have also placed similar bans on PUBG Mobile as well.
It appears that the ‘haziness’ surrounding the ban seems to have encouraged deprived fans from striking out, organising the party and inviting over a hundred players from all over Bangladesh – many of them minors – to a public community centre in the assumption that – shhhh… – no-one would find out… Bad move, and police quickly raided the event.
It appears the Bangladesh government will have to firm up the law in order to enforce the ban or otherwise seek ways of regulating play time for players.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.