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Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat
Technology
Asharq Al-Awsat

Shoot 'em Up Video Game a Refuge for War-scarred Afghans

Taliban Video Game PUBG Entertainment
Afghan boys play PUBG on mobile phones in Kabul Wakil KOHSAR AFP

The crackle of gunfire. A gasp of a stranger. Explosions rumbling in the distance. In the Afghan capital of Kabul, such sounds would normally prompt panic.

But they are coming from the tinny speaker of a mobile phone clutched by a young man, hunched over and absorbed in the bloody shoot 'em up video game "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds", or PUBG.

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