By JAN McGIRK in Lahore
Anyone who flies a kite in Lahore in the next few months may face charges of attempted murder.
City officials have banned the popular pastime over summer after at least 14 children had their throats slashed by the metal wire, fishing line or glass-coated string used
for kite-fighting.
Four people died from kite injuries last week alone, said Malik Shafi, president of the Lahore Kite-Flying Association. He supports the trial ban, which coincides with the practically windless summer season.
The rooftops of the crowded city are normally the scene of fierce battles between colourful paper kites in which each flyer tries to cut the string of rivals.
Hapless motorcyclists or pedestrians are injured when a severed kite line, coated with caustic chemicals or ground glass, falls unnoticed across their path.
Some people have been strangled, but enthusiasts have also been killed falling off buildings or by stumbling into traffic because their attention is diverted by the swoops and feints of these dramatic sky battles.
Small boys have been electrocuted when their kite strings touch high-voltage power lines. Power cuts blamed on kites cost the city 1.5 million rupees ($44,500) every year.
Local judge Mian Aamir Mahmood said vendors and manufacturers of kites in Lahore would be prosecuted as well, although tens of thousands earn a living from kites.
"Kite-flying might be accepted as sport, but we will not allow it to become an activity which puts lives in danger," he said.
Municipal committees are drawing up a code for flyers, who are likely to be restricted to riversides and sports fields in the autumn, when kite frenzy begins in earnest.
Some fundamentalist clerics revile kites as pagan and for years have called for a Taleban-like kite prohibition in the Punjab and neighbouring provinces.
Syed Munawar Hasan, secretary-general of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, told the BBC that Basant, the Punjabi kite festival heavily promoted as a tourism attraction, had become a symbol of Pakistan's sellout to Western values and ambitions.
Analysts believe this is because Basant is celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims each spring.
Lahore socialite Yousaf Salahud Din was baffled by the new law, pointing out that kites had nothing to do with religion.
"The Government promotes a kite festival as a mega-event, then puts a ban on it."
- INDEPENDENT
By JAN McGIRK in Lahore
Anyone who flies a kite in Lahore in the next few months may face charges of attempted murder.
City officials have banned the popular pastime over summer after at least 14 children had their throats slashed by the metal wire, fishing line or glass-coated string used
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