Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Militants in Pakistan are now using "video games" and charging equipment to target security personnel. In the latest series of attacks on police stations, a senior police official asserted that militants applied features introduced in PlayerUnknown’s BattleGround, a video game commonly known as PUBG, to attack a police station in Swat, Dawn reported on Monday. According to the report, on August 28, Banr police station in Swat came under a militant attack, in which a policeman was killed and two others injured.
During its initial investigation, police officials were focused on CCTV footage of different surveillance cameras for several hours. They found a man using a mobile phone outside the police station which came under attack. The officials, who were investigating the case were confident of solving the case with the help of a mobile phone as it could be traced easily. However, the district police officer of Swat, Zahidullah, said the case was totally different. He said that the militants never called each other but utilised features of PUBG to avoid being traced.
Why did militants use video games during attack?
"The militants would play PUBG to practice and motivate their group members for battle against the state and would use the chat room for communication,” Dawn quoted Zahidullah as saying.
He added that it was too difficult to reach the target and arrest militants in the absence of clues. Earlier, the investigators were focusing on a motorbike, which in the CCTV footage passed in front of the police station minutes before the explosion took place. He said that the investigators believed a hand grenade had been lobbed at the police station. However, it was not the case, he added. The official said that it was difficult to find out what was actually used for the attack because there was nothing on the ground which could prove that a hand grenade was used in the attack.
“They had used an improvised explosive device, made of a power bank, which is mostly used for charging mobile phones, for the attack,” he said.
How did the Pakistan Police track down militants?
He added that one of the suspected militants was finally traced through several CCTV footage. The district police officer stated that during the investigation, the accused revealed the names of two other suspected militants, who were also arrested and shared with the investigation team that they never used common means for communication and would change mobile phones and their Sims repeatedly, reported the Pakistani media.
“They had created a chat room in PUBG for communication and exchanging messages,” he said. He said that the militants belonged to a local, Murad alias Rehmatullah group, affiliated with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.
Militants family also involved: Police
He said that Murad, head of the group, and family members of the suspected militants, were living across the border in Afghanistan. “We have proved that suspected militants remained in contact with their family members and Rehmatullah group in Afghanistan and that they never travelled to Afghanistan but Karachi,” he said. He noted that the that family members of the suspected militants were involved in militant activities and were wanted by law enforcement agencies. He added that suspected militants’ family members escaped Operation Rah-i-Rast, a military onslaught against militants in Swat in 2009. He said that around 2,000 families of militants belonging to Swat were residing in Afghanistan.
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