Basant kites claim three lives
 

:sad

Dawn Report

LAHORE, Feb 23: Three people, two of them children, were killed and over four dozen others were injured in kite-flying accidents in Punjab on Friday.

The casualties were mainly reported from central Punjab where the sport had been banned by the district governments concerned. Kite-flying was allowed only in Lahore, where 50 people were arrested on Friday for using banned strings or firing in the air.

In Faisalabad, a minor boy was reportedly killed and eight people were injured while trying to grab stray kites on roads or falling from rooftops.

Husnain, 8, was electrocuted in Mansoorabad when he tried to catch a stray kite with an iron rod but it touched an electricity wire. Police instituted some 300 cases against people for using banned varieties of twine and firing in the air.

In Sahiwal, the twine of a stray kite cost a motorcyclist his head while over four dozen people were injured either after falling from rooftops or in firing.

In Okara, a 10-years-old boy fell from the roof of his house on an iron fence which pierced through his body.

In Gujranwala, over two dozen people, including two small girls, were injured. They either fell from roofs or were hit by bullets. Basant was celebrated in Gujranwala in defiance of the district government’s ban on kite-flying. More than 55 people were arrested for firing in the air. People also complained of what they termed hooliganism.

In Toba Tek Singh, over a dozen youngsters were injured after they fell from rooftops on Thursday night. Almost half the town remained without power supply for about two hours because of frequent falling of metal wires on power lines.

No untoward incident was reported from Kasur, where firing and kite-flying continued for almost the whole day on Friday.

Kite-flying, the main event of the Basant which is celebrated every year to welcome spring, had been banned by the Supreme Court in December 2005, taking note of reports of deaths caused by string. However, it was allowed for two days -- Feb 24-25 -- by the Punjab government with certain restrictions in accordance with a law enacted last year under the court’s direction.

Under the new law, the district governments had been authorised to allow kite-flying and regulate allied businesses for a certain period. But this year, no district government except Lahore allowed kite-flying.

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