Bangladesh telecom regulators asked to probe 'suicide game Blue Whale'

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has asked the telecom regulators to investigate whether the online game 'Blue Whale' has caused any death by suicide in Bangladesh.

He prodded the BTRC to act after seeing media reports on a father blaming the game for his daughter's death in Dhaka.

"I've noticed the reports. I have asked the BTRC chairman (Shahjahan Mahmood) to take a decision after investigating the matter," Minister Kamal told reporters at the ministry on Monday.

He said he asked the BTRC to check if the schoolgirl was influenced by playing the game and whether anyone in Bangladesh was playing the game.

State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak said the authorities were trying to block the links that lead to the game.

"We are monitoring this carefully," he told reporters after a programme at the ICT Division later in the day.

"We've seen that some links are used in this. We've spoken to the intelligence agencies and BTRC. We trying to block these links," he said.

He advised all to be aware of the risk of playing such games.

'The Blue Whale Challenge', known as a 'suicide game', is an online game which reportedly leads the player to die by suicide after completing some tasks at different levels of the game.

An expelled psychology student in Russia claimed to have invented the game. Experts believe copycat groups are using it now.

A number of deaths by suicide triggered by the game were reported in India recently.