Police seize over 10,000 kites in Rawalpindi

Sellers intercepted by Saddar officials, four arrested

RAWALPINDI:

The Rawalpindi police booked four more kite suppliers and seized more than 10,000 kites and over 100 chemical strings from their possession on Monday, a spokesperson shared.

The suspects were supplying kites in different areas of the garrison city, they added.

According to details, the police officials informed that the Saddar police stopped a van upon suspicion and conducted a search operation. They found more than 10,000 kites and 105 chemical strings from the vehicle. The suspects were identified as Zeeshan Ahmed, Hasan Ali, Faizan Ahmed and Samiullah.

The officials said that the suspects were transporting the kites which were to be supplied in different areas of Rawalpindi to which they confessed to as well. The police have registered a case against all four of them and started an investigation.

Previously, a day earlier on Sunday, the City Police Officer (CPO) Ahsan Younas stated that there is a complete ban on kite-flying and the use of metal string, adding that Kite Flying Association has challenged the writ of law by announcing to celebrate Basant on the upcoming weekend.

The CPO stated that around 1,000 police personnel would be deployed on the rooftops of different buildings across the city equipped with drone cameras. They would remain in contact with the field officers, he added.

The drone operators would record videos of the kite-flyers and send them to field officers after which cases against law violators would be registered, the CPO warned.

Younas said that kites and chemical strings were supplied from outside the city as there are no factories in Rawalpindi.

He maintained that the police are rigorously conducting raids to dismantle the supply chain. He added that around 80,000 kites had been confiscated during different raids as of Sunday.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2021.